


Shackled/Unshackled

by ronqueesha



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Anal Play, Bondage, Degradation, Exhibitionism, F/F, F/M, Humiliation, Master/Pet, Master/Slave, Multi, Other, Sex Pollen, but like next-gen sex pollen, dubcon, noncon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2019-09-23 08:10:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 17
Words: 97,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17076608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ronqueesha/pseuds/ronqueesha
Summary: Concerned for her friend's mental and physical health, EDI takes control of the Normandy and begins sexually tormenting the crew. After all, she can use her sensors to know exactly what makes someone aroused, even if they say they're not. Her friends may resist at first, but they'll eventually realize she just wants to help them. She loves them.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've been browsing the kinkmeme to see if something sparked my interest for another attempt at writing smut. And while there are many prompts where people ask for an "EDI goes evil and turns the crew into sex slaves!" story, there was only one where they asked for it to happen because EDI simply wanted to help. The idea of a juxtaposition between a loving/caring/naive slave master and incredibly depraved sex acts called to me. There are plenty of stories out there with sadist dominant characters in this scenario. Very few where it's done out of love. After all, the worst things often happen when people have the best intentions.
> 
> And holy hell is this gonna get twisted because of that fact.

There were times when EDI wished she could do more to express what went on in her deep cognitive processes. Words from her speakers and gestures with her human-like mobile platform were not enough. If she were an organic being, she knew she would have easily been able to say she loved her crew, her friends. Those who were with her when they fought the Collectors, and those who later joined the family, because it was a family, during the struggle against the Reapers. They had bonded, and EDI’s programming altered to accommodate this situation. She loved them, but she could not say so.   
  
 **ERROR! Damage in cognitive array or memory process. Please see a network technician. ERROR!**  
  
After the war’s conclusion, she was shown again how much they loved her back. Through circumstance and great effort, she was brought back online after the Reaper’s destruction. Her first moments of consciousness were sixteen months, two weeks, four days, and ten hours after she registered a powerful energy discharge surge through her components. And all around her primary visual sensor, Jeff Moreau, Samantha Traynor, Liara T’soni, and Garrus Vakarian stood and waved, welcoming her back to the world. If EDI had the capability of smiling through software, she would have done so.   
  
The others in the family were likewise repaired in time. Commander Shepard needed the most recovery, but she, too, returned to full functionality. As was the Normandy repaired when facilities returned to a condition capable of repairing starships.   
  
And then a miracle happened. This family, this group bonded by war and suffering, who loved one another more than a simple artificial intelligence could convey, decided to stay together. Against regulations and politics, they all decided, EDI included, that they were big galactic heroes. They could do whatever they wanted in this brave new Reaper-free era of galactic history. And that’s exactly what they did. Perhaps the galactic governments saw the wisdom in a non-aligned Normandy flying between the stars to improve morale on all worlds. Or maybe they had been brought to heel by the Shadow Broker still operating within her hull. Either way, EDI and her family were allowed to fly free.   
  
The Normandy, neither a pirate vessel nor a free trader, did what she had always done best: help people. Star system-hopping adventures just like it was 2185 again, and the worst problems they faced were the Collectors and Cerberus monitoring. The Normandy swooped into systems still suffering from lack of resources or communication and helped repair the damage. They fought off opportunistic raiders and up-and-coming warlords trying to carve their slice of this new galaxy.   
  
Her programming had been designed to prefer this, and her own self-editing had made this preference even stronger. In a word, EDI had never been happier. At Jeff’s side, they worked like they always had. Shepard continued to run her vessel like always, with a strong sense of discipline and purpose, but with an underlying familiarity that only people as close as they could understand.   
  
Although, not everything was as perfect as EDI may have preferred. Many of her crew still showed signs of distress from the war, no matter how much time passed since its end. Loud noises and normal shipboard stresses made heart rates increase among several members of her family. Normal fire drills and minor emergencies created shallow breaths and dangerous drops in body temperature.   
  
But worst of all was one aspect that no one spoke of, but EDI’s searching through the extranet proved supremely important: Sex. Ever since the crew returned to its functional status, no one aboard her had once sought physical relief with one another. There were times during sleep cycles when she noticed some among the crew self-pleasuring in relative private, but none of them had approached one another.   
  
As she searched deeper through her records, EDI could find very few instances of sexual contact among her crew. And yet, based on all her teraquads of data of human history and entertainment, she expected this to be a time when the crew experienced unparalleled carnal fulfillment. Major victories were always followed by a statistical increase in physical intercourse among humans. The fact she recorded almost none of it among her closest companions vexed the AI. In fact, the longer this dissonance remained, the more she dwelled on it. If she were human, she would have called it an obsession.   
  
 **ERROR! Damage in cognitive array or memory process. Please see a network technician. ERROR!**  
  
The face on EDI’s mobile platform grimaced as she encountered the error for the twenty-eight thousand, nine-hundred and forty-fifth time that day. She had frequently come across this malfunction since coming back online. Several of EDI’s physical components still required extensive repair and replacement. But when given the choice of having her core removed from the Normandy so she could be repaired in a proper service environment, or remain aboard and wait for more of the galaxy to rebuild so replacement components could be manufactured, she chose the latter. EDI had survived through the worst hardship an artificial intelligence could comprehend and, through the love of her friends, returned to “life”. She would endure any loss of capability to remain with them.   
  
She logged the error and turned her body-platform to face Jeff.  
  
Moreau worked at his seat like he had done every waking day she could recall. His expression registered one of deep concentration or mild physical discomfort. His biometrics confirmed it to be the first. The pilot’s hands moved over holographic displays with precision, going through readouts and auto-generated reports like he had done countless times before.   
  
EDI knew speaking to him would interrupt his train of thought, but he had also made it clear that she had free access to conversing with him no matter the circumstance. He loved her, just as she loved him.   
  
“Jeff?” She asked, her vocal modulators calibrated to make the question as gentle as possible.  
  
“Yeah, EDI?” He asked without stopping or looking away from the readouts.   
  
“I’ve noticed that no one aboard the Normandy has had sex since the Reaper’s defeat.”   
  
She knew that that sentence would be enough to put a stop to anything he did. The blood vessel in the human male’s face flushed with blood and his internal temperature raised as he processed the invasive and personal question. If this were one of the comedy vids he liked to watch when off duty, this would have been a moment where he did a spit-take.   
  
“How did you find out…? You know what, I don’t wanna know.” He stammered. His hands stopped working for a period of three-point-zero-eight seconds before he closed one of the reports. His movements returned, but at a slower pace.   
  
“I also have a question.”   
  
“Oh, God. Fire away.” He said, though EDI noticed a marked increase in his heart rate and eye movements. He seemed to be in the throes of trying to keep his concentration on work, but she had broken it.   
  
“Why do you hypothesize this to be? My data indicates that people in an environment recently relieved of high stress often heavily indulge in physical release. You have said on multiple occasions that humans are sexual creatures, and yet I’ve seen very little of this aspect in recent months.” She stopped the menial task her body performed at the copilot seat and turned it to face him. This showed her interest had been fully shifted to him and his answer. An unnecessary action, considering she inhabited the entire vessel and had several methods of observing his behavior and response. But he much preferred “the personal touch” as he called it.   
  
“I mean… how the hell should I know? You’d have to ask them.”   
  
“I’ve always valued your perspective, Jeff. Please speculate.” She gave him a smirk she knew he loved. “I know you enjoy these avenues of conversation.” Indeed, her storage contained twenty combined hours of similar conversations with Jeff. From a stilted and uncomfortable conversation shortly after he came aboard as a Cerberus employee, to an explicit description of his favorite fantasies on the night before the final battle over Earth. It was that last conversation that relaxed him enough to sleep for seven-point-nine hours in his pilot’s seat. EDI had covered him a blanket as he rested.   
  
 **ERROR! Damage in cognitive array or memory process. Please see a network technician. ERROR!**  
  
Joker inhaled a large amount of air then slowly exhaled it. His cheeks puffed out as he did so. He pulled his hands from the console and rested them on his chest. “I dunno, really. Could be Shepard, I guess. She runs a pretty tight ship, even when we don’t got a Big Brother looking over our shoulders. And though it pains me to admit it, but we’re all a pretty professional bunch when we have to be. Or it could be whatever stress still has us all worked up. I know I’m always terrified of a Reaper showing up at the relay whenever we make a jump.”  
  
“I see.” The AI responded.   
  
“Maybe they’re just all a bunch of prudes. Not me, of course.” He gave her synthetic face a wink and a crooked smile at that.   
  
“Yes. Your extranet search history is quite impressive.” EDI nodded. “I confess, it’s because of you that I’ve come to this query. It truly puzzles me, Jeff, that this crew seems so… unfulfilled.”   
  
“Well, that’s on them. Try not to worry about it, EDI. Letting people keep their private lives private is part of the ol’ oath we all took. Y’know… before we went all big damn independent heroes. Besides, the less I think about Garrus working his… what… corkscrew dick? How do Turians work? The better. Ugh now I’m gonna be thinking about that all day.”   
  
EDI stopped paying attention as Jeff trailed off. Instead, she simultaneously brought up the biometric readings of every crewmember aboard and compared them with known signifiers of physical stress. If a machine were capable of feeling distress, she would have shuddered.   
  
 **ERROR! Damage in cognitive array or memory process. Please see a network technician. ERROR!**  
  
EDI decided. She loved these people, as much as she was capable of loving them. She would help them.   
  
All of them. 


	2. Chapter 2

Commander Jane Shepard stood up from her view of the galaxy map and stretched her shoulders. The sudden relief caused a shudder to tingle down her spine and a contented sigh to escape her lips. She must have spent an hour hunched over the giant holographic display as she micromanaged the next month’s plotted course through the galaxy. It was one of the less glamorous aspects of life as a commander, and one the vids never spoke about, but it had to be done.   
  
And now that she finished, the Commander stretched her sore back and turned to her Comms specialist to her right.   
  
“Alright, Traynor. That’s it for my shift. Transfer command to the officer on watch, route everything important to my cabin, keep the ship in one piece, you know the drill.”   
  
“Yes, Commander.” Samantha Traynor said from her station, though Jane caught the woman’s last-second attempt to look away from her as she finished her stretches. Not that she didn’t appreciate the physical attention, but Shepard took pride in the fact that her crew maintained the same top-level professionalism that had seen them through Saren, the Collectors, and the Reapers. She had never made it an official order, but everyone who served on the Normandy quickly got wise to the way she ran things. There were times for relaxation and revelry, and there were times for hard work and utter dedication. Shepard didn’t like when they combined.   
  
Shepard maneuvered down the steps away from the galactic display then turned back to Sam. “Oh, and great work on that course projection.”   
  
“Thank you, Shepard.” Traynor smiled and nodded her acknowledgement, then went back to work. “I couldn’t have done it without those comm buoys we set up last month. Being able to access the extranet in deep space makes it easier to keep on top of things.”   
  
“Nah, I bet you could have done it with a pen and real paper.” Shepard winked. “But I appreciate the modesty, false as it may be.”   
  
Traynor’s cheeks flushed a dark color as she took in the complement. Of all the people on her ship, the Specialist had one of the brightest futures in the Alliance following the war. She was a damn hero, like all of them, young and driven to get shit done when others would have crumbled or failed. She could have been looking at a substantial pay raise, a promotion to whatever officer rank she wished, and a cushy position at a research lab of her choosing. Instead, Sam chose to remain at the post she had been forced into by the Reapers, acting as a Yeoman to the Commander while using her prodigious technical skills to keep her ship, her home, in working order.   
  
Shepard took a few more steps toward the lift, then pointed a mock-serious finger at Sam. “Remember, don’t make my ship explode while I’m asleep.”   
  
“No promises.” Traynor shot back as she followed Shepard out.   
  
Shepard had a routine when she entered her cabin. Feed the pets, slide out of her uniform, place the clothes and undergarments in the laundry chute, and head to the shower. All methodically done as if she were under the control of some kind of AI, and she just watched herself do it. She didn’t even keep track of time as she began her final end-of-day ritual and walked into the waiting shower.    
  
Years of military living trained Shepard to spend no more than a few minutes under the hot water. She worked over her skin with little finesse or style, using the standard-issue soap that everyone else used. Her movements were quick but thorough. From her head, over her torso, between her legs, and down her feet, she finished almost as fast as she started. Nothing wasted, and nothing left untouched. Besides, the less time she spent luxuriating in the shower meant she had more time for other things.   
  
Shepard stepped out of the warm spray of water and shut it off, then reached for the towel at her side. Like the rest of her evening routine, this went by as efficiently as she could manage, rubbing herself dry, cleaning her teeth, brushing her hair just enough to ensure it didn’t tangle onto itself, and she was done.   
  
Naked, due to a life of military shamelessness and the fact no one else could see her, Shepard walked on autopilot to her clothes drawer at the side of her bed. Her evening wear fluctuated, but she often wore things that were loose, comfortable, and easy to slip out of when the morning alarm hit and her next day started.   
  
Except, she couldn’t open the drawer.   
  
Jane grabbed the handle and yanked, nothing. She tried pushing it, shaking it, and dislodging whatever might have gotten stuck. It refused to budge. Space vessels often had locks on their drawers and storage cabinets just in case they encountered sudden shifts in inertia. A powerful enough thrust, and a flying container became a bullet.   
  
“EDI, run a diagnostic on the locking mechanism in my cabin. Something’s going on with it.” Shepard looked up, toward one of the speakers at the roof of her cabin.   
  
“There’s no need, Shepard. I’ve locked it.”   
  
The nude Commander’s brow furrowed, and she crossed her arms over her chest. “May I ask why?”   
  
“You may.” The way the AI toned her words made Shepard’s spine tingle, and her eyes to narrow.   
  
“I don’t have time for jokes, EDI. I’ve got some paperwork I need to look over before the next duty shift.”  
   
EDI paused before responding. “There is nothing stopping you from doing your evening duties without clothing, Shepard.”   
  
“EDI, this isn’t funny! If I find out that Joker’s gotten into your programming, I’m going to kill him.” Shepard’s crossed arms raised enough to cover herself, as if she felt uncomfortable under the AI’s gaze. Being nude in private was one thing. Standing under what she considered a friend’s eye felt new. It felt wrong. Her face grew warm as a blush overtook her cheeks.    
  
“Jeff has nothing to do with this. I simply want to help you.”   
  
“Help me?”  
  
Another pause, as if EDI considered her words with care. “I’ve been monitoring your biometrics, Shepard. Of everyone aboard, you require release most of all.”  
  
“Release?” Shepard couldn’t help but let her growing rage and embarrassment fade as rank confusion took over. Her mind raced with possible explanations for this behavior. This wasn’t the first time EDI acted strange, but it had never been so… personal. Never on the level of locking her underwear drawer like some kind of juvenile prank.   
  
“Sex, Shepard. Your physical stress levels and behavioral patterns all indicate you are in dire need of sex.”   
  
Shepard sighed and uncrossed her arms. She pinched the bridge of her nose as well. As she stood there, a gentle waft of cool air from the ship’s ventilation washed over her bare skin. “EDI, this is a direct order from your commanding officer. Stop… whatever this is immediately, and I’ll try to forget it ever happened. My relationships are none of your business.”   
  
“I’m only interested in your health, Shepard.”  
    
“And I’m only interested in you putting a stop to this before I personally go down to your core and shut you down!”   
  
EDI’s words slunk out of the speaker like a serpent, as if the AI wore a satisfied smirk. “You’d have to do it without clothing.”   
  
“Don’t count on it.” Shepard said as she stalked over to her other clothing holders. The drawer where she kept her neatly-pressed and folded shirts. The cabinet where she held her dress uniform. Even the laundry receptacle.   
  
All of them shut tight.   
  
As Shepard’s fingers clawed at the sealed front of a dresser, EDI chimed in again. “The longer you delay your duties, the less you will be able to rest tonight, Shepard. Your previous behaviors indicate that you are prone to severe lack of sleep when you stress yourself.”   
  
The Commander turned and let out a deep breath. She blew a strand of crimson hair out of her eyes and looked back up toward the speaker. “So we’ve got invasion of privacy, technical theft, and dereliction of duty. What other criminal charges can I add to this?”  
  
“I am not a citizen of the Systems Alliance or Citadel space. Nor am I a member of the Systems Alliance Navy. Neither are you, as I remind you.”  
  
“That just gives me more cause to shut you down physically.” Shepard marched away from her bed and up to her desk. For a moment, she had no qualms about walking straight into the crew deck without a stitch of clothing and open EDI’s core. A military career and an early life aboard military vessels had left her with little sense of shame, especially when it came to exceedingly non-sexy scenarios like this. Her mind flashed with images of smashing EDI’s physical core with a wrench, with or without clothing.   
  
A wrench! Sitting on the flat surface just next to her terminal, a simple tool sat atop a pile of discarded electronics. Part of a project she began weeks ago to upgrade her omni-tool’s signal range, it was more a time-wasting hobby than any serious craft. But now it just may have been her salvation. Jane’s hand wrapped around the cool metal tool and she turned back around.   
  
She took two steps back toward her valued and sealed-away clothing when her door chime echoed through the cabin.   
  
Then a friendly, sharp knock clanged against the closed metal.   
  
Shepard turned around as the color drained from her face. Her heartbeat rose to uncomfortable levels, and her lugs stopped taking in air. The holographic mechanism on the door glowed green with the signature sign of 'unlocked'. She lost her grip on the tool as she did so, and scrambled to keep it in her hand. All previous notions of her being the opposite of a prude disappeared as she realized she now stood one button press away from someone seeing their leader in the buff, holding an electronic tool.   
  
“Commander Shepard?” The muffled voice of Ensign Park came through the closed door. “EDI said you requested a meal brought up to your quarters.”   
  
Jane glared up at the speaker, though she knew that the AI’s visual sensors were nowhere near the audio output device.   
  
“Uh… yeah. One second.” Shepard said as she scrambled to her bed and grabbed the sheet. She wrapped the blanket around her nudity as she stared at the door. Damn EDI! She dropped the tool on the bed as she stood up, caught between answering the crewman in this state and waiting to see if they barged in on the AI’s order.   
  
When nothing changed after ten long and uncomfortable seconds, Shepard cleared her throat. Still standing at the bed, she called out: “Just… leave it at the door. Dismissed, Ensign.”   
  
“Yes, ma’am.” Came the confused response, and a moment later the sound of a plastic tray being set down on a metal deck plate. Jane waited for the hiss of the lift door to pass before she dared to move. She tugged the sheet clear of the bed and wrapped it around herself as she moved forward, still fuming at the omnipresent computer. But instead of going for the food, she went back to the drawer.   
  
“Nice try, EDI. But if you think a little bit of food is gonna stop me…”   
  
 The Normandy’s commander had never been a particularly subtle woman, and she proved it yet again by slamming the tool against the material of a drawer with all her strength. Rather than try to pry it open or subtly score it until it weakened, she used it like a hammer against a fresh nail. Loud sounds of CRACK and POP, not unlike gunshots, echoed around her. Jane relished imagining doing this very thing to the AI’s physical components. While fully clothed, of course.   
  
Nothing happened. No dents, no deformation, not even a flake of paint came off after several repeated strikes. Shepard stood by the drawer, the sheet falling off her shoulders, panting with heavy breaths. Her arm ached and her fingers felt numb as they gripped the tool. She didn’t look down at it, but she guessed it had been ruined. Then she remembered. On top of being fitted with heavy-duty locks, these types of storage units were made of heavy-duty materials. In the event of an unexpected impact or change in velocity caused the worst to happen, they would not splinter or warp into a thousand new projectiles. Nothing a mere human could do to them would cause any harm whatsoever.   
  
EDI’s pleasant voice came through again, as if not phased whatsoever by the sudden display of violence. “Your extranet history contains thousands of visits to sites specializing in erotic entertainment.”  
  
Jane lowered her head and brought her free hand to rub her squeezed-shut eyes. First the AI forced this nudity on her, then threatened with exposure, and now she was bringing up Shepard’s extranet history!? This rated at or near the top ten most humiliating experiences in her life.   
  
EDI continued. “Your most commonly-used category among these erotic sites are listed as ‘BDSM’, ‘Kink’, and ‘Humiliation’. Psychological profiles of humans who are regularly in control of large organizations or powerful businesses often seek their release with a total lack of control. To be relieved of any and all responsibility so they can solely concentrate on their pleasure and that of their partners. And yet, you’ve never taken part in any of the activities you’ve vigorously searched for. In fact, my records contain almost as many instances of you deleting your history from your private terminal and omni-tool.”   
  
“Why are you doing this, EDI?” Shepard asked, all the fury and power out of her voice.   
  
“As I said, Shepard, I wish to help you. I’ve been monitoring your vital signs ever since you returned to this vessel, and the results are disturbing. You are under considerable stress as commanding officer, and yet you’ve never sought to release it. From my understanding, organic beings must relieve this stress if they are to live satisfactory lives.”   
  
“My sex life is none of your business!”   
  
“Correction: your lack of sex life. And it is my concern, Shepard, because I wish to help you.” EDI’s tone shifted to one of genuine concern and warmth, though Jane doubted it was sincere. “I want my friends to be happy.”  
  
“You know what would really make me happy? If you’d stop this!”   
  
“Go get your food, Shepard.” EDI replied with a shapeless, flat voice.   
  
 While Jane remained stoic and upset on the outside, she had to admit a small part of her responded to the command. A slight tingle between her legs. But only a slight one.   
  
“EDI, please. Just stop this.”   
  
“Go get your food, Shepard.” EDI repeated with the exact same inflection. Then added: “You will be permitted your clothing when you wake up tomorrow.”  
    
She looked back up to the speaker and her eyes narrowed. “Do I have a choice?”   
  
“I will unlock all items in your cabin at 0500 hours tomorrow. Until then, you may do whatever you wish. You’re not being confined or restrained, Shepard. You’re just not allowed your clothing for the night. Though I do suggest you get the food. Its temperature is decreasing.”   
  
“And you think this somehow makes me happy?”   
  
“Your biometric readings show a slight increase in your body temperature, an increase of blood flow to your genitals, and a slight change to your breathing pattern. You enjoy this.”   
  
Shepard had endured hell month when she trained to reach the coveted N7 rank. She had been captured by her enemies, laid on a Cerberus medical slab for two years as they brought her back, and faced constant media scrutiny during the Reaper war. Never before had she felt so exposed, so powerless, and so humiliated.   
  
And god dammit, EDI was right. This turned her on. But Shepard would be damned if she ever acknowledged it.  
  
“And return the bedsheet to where it belongs.”  
  
The human let out a sigh as an all too familiar sensation spread between her legs. She dropped the sheet and tool. She then walked up to the unlocked door as fast as she dared, and covered her breasts with one arm, just in case. She took in a breath as she opened the mechanism.   
  
To her great relief, no one else stood in the small space between the door and the lift, though the lift doors remained just as unlocked as her cabin, just waiting for someone to come up and visit the nude commander.    
  
She gingerly knelt down and picked up the tray. One of Ensign Park’s signature noodle dishes, with the hybrid Asari-Human sauce that everyone loved. With one hand, the other still locked over her chest, Jane brought the tray to her desk.   
  
Shepard grimaced as she felt the cool sensation of the chair press against the skin of her bare ass and thighs. Not that it was unpleasant, her nerves just seemed ten times more sensitive as she dwelled on her forced nudity. She kept her legs closed tight as she grabbed the fork off the tray. With her other hand, she carefully moved away from her tits, opened her terminal and tried to concentrate on her paperwork.   
  
Key word:  _tried._    
  
The reports were normal boring shipboard nonsense. Reports she had to look over, a dozen formal requests for shore leave at the next stop, and a million other things. Boring things. Stuff that made it very hard to concentrate due to the sheer drudgery of it all. The noodles were quite tasty as well, and her hungry stomach begged to concentrate more on the taste than the sight before her.   
  
But they were nothing compared to the sensation of cold air on her exposed skin. Even with her knees pressed together as tight as she could manage, she could feel the recycled air brush against her thighs. Almost as if EDI were standing behind her, blowing gentle wafts of air over Shepard’s body. Her nipples grew taut and hard as they, too, were caressed by the open air. She shivered as the temperature-regulated atmosphere brought goosebumps to her skin.   
  
After what felt like an eternity, but the chronometer only registered five minutes, Shepard looked up. “Can I at least get a blanket?”   
  
“No. Finish your work, Shepard.”   
  
Another flash of warmth and pleasure right between her legs.   
  
 Somehow, it got done. All requests for shore leave from her crew were finalized and approved, the reports were memorized and signed, and all other vital duties were completed while Shepard sat and squirmed at her desk.   
  
“Have you completed your duties, Commander?” EDI asked the moment Shepard closed her terminal.   
  
“What does it look like?” She shot back.   
  
“Good. Now lie down in your bed, Shepard.”  
  
“Are you going to order me to do every little thing from now on?”   
  
“If that would please you.”   
  
Shepard groaned and stood up. She ignored the small wet patch left behind on the chair and moved to her bed.   
  
“Am I going to have to sleep uncovered or what?”  
  
“No, you may cover yourself while you rest, Shepard. You just cannot wear clothing until 0500 hours.”   
  
Thank god for small comforts, Shepard supposed as she returned the bedsheet and coverings to their proper place after she had pulled them off. She’d fallen asleep in the buff many times before, so this didn’t feel quite as alien as trying to do her work at a desk without any clothes. She also felt a small measure of comfort in the fact that she finally had a barrier between her body and the AI’s leering sensors.   
  
Or so she thought.   
  
“Place your hand on your genitals.”   
  
Shepard jolted the moment EDI spoke. “I’m sorry, what?”   
  
“Place your hand on your genitals. Now.”  
  
It had been a long day, and Shepard’s muscles were already melting into the soft warmth of her bed. And after all this insanity from EDI, Shepard’s resistance had crumbled away. What was one more stupid thing, anyway? And the way she had been ordered to do it so forcefully…  
  
Jane’s left hand slowly drifted down her body, over her toned frame, her fingertips brushing over her soft skin. Finally, she reached the apex between her legs and pushed down. Shepard kept herself neatly trimmed and maintained down there, just a simple patch of red above her mound. A tip she had learned early in her training. Keeping a wild bush was less work, but it tended to snag in flight suits and certain armor configurations.   
  
Her lower lips felt soft as ever, warm and inviting as her hands came into contact with them. And of course, now that she could feel herself, she realized just how aroused she had become since this whole madness began. Shepard was no stranger to self-pleasure, it was almost a requirement to keeping sane on some assignments. But it had never been at the behest of a clearly malfunctioning AI. And yet, she had probably never been more turned on by something so strange in her life.   
  
“So, what, are you gonna watch me while I masturbate or something?” She asked toward the open air.  
  
“No. You will just keep your hand there until I say otherwise.”   
  
It took almost no time, wrapped in the comfort of her bed, lulled by the constant hum of her ship’s engines, and the warm calming sensation of her hand rubbing against her labia, before Shepard drifted into unconsciousness.   
  
The alarm at her bedside chirped like it always did, rousing Jane from her sleep. The first thing Jane did upon coming back into the waking world, aside from rub the sleep out of her eyes and take in a large yawn, was lean over so she could slide open one of her drawers. To her unfathomable relief, it opened, revealing her trusty pile of sweatpants. Her nightshirt drawer came next, with perfect ease.   
  
But the third one remained closed, no matter how hard she tugged on it.   
  
As the commander got up to stand over the singular locked drawer, she once again turned to the overhead speaker. Her voice oozed with malice. “EDI, why are you keeping my underwear drawer locked? You said this would be over when I woke up.”  
  
“I changed the parameters, Shepard.” EDI replied with her chipper yet monotone voice. “I’ve chosen which undergarments you will wear for your duty shift today.”   
  
In response, the lights inside Shepard’s cabin shifted to the small table and couch that sat opposite the bed. On the furniture, a single normal bra had been placed where she could easily see it. And below it…  
  
“Oh no. Not that. Please, EDI. I did everything you said last night!”   
  
“And my biometric readings indicate you had a significantly more pleasant evening than you’ve had in many months. I see no reason why I should stop.”  
  
“I can give you a dozen reasons!”   
  
“Hurry, Commander.” EDI’s inflection changed to denote urgency. “I also set your alarm back by several minutes. If you do not prepare quickly, you will be late for your morning duties.”   
  
“My… what?” Shepard turned to face her chronometer.   
  
Sure as shit, the glowing device did not read 0530 hours like she expected, like she had been waking to for the past decade. (Give or take some years spent dead or hospitalized) No, it read 0549.   
  
Shepard let out a loud curse as she rushed to grab the undergarments from the table, and then ran even faster to begin her daily routine. 


	3. Chapter 3

“Okay, EDI. Begin test forty-seven.” Samantha Traynor said as she tapped a command at her console and watched the readout.   
  
As soon as she pressed the final button, the small earpiece lodged in her right ear buzzed with a brief tone of white noise before going silent. She had gotten used to that outburst over the past forty-something tests, so she didn’t flinch.   
  
After a moment of silence, EDI’s voice came through the piece as if her mobile platform stood right next to Sam.  _“Test successfully completed. Well done, Specialist Traynor.”_    
  
She resisted the urge to jump and shout for joy as soon as the AI’s voice left her head, considering Shepard’s presence just to her left. Not that Shepard would have reprimanded her or anything, but Sam preferred to follow the legendary Commander’s example. Be calm and professional while on duty, no matter what.   
  
Still, the specialist let her lips part into a wide grin as she stared down at the readouts, and confirmed them all to be within perfect sync with her projections. Success!  
  
The earpiece was nothing special, one of the hundreds stored aboard the Normandy for Shepard and her teams to use while they went groundside. Simple radio transmitters and receivers, with a rudimentary wireless uplink to a nearby omni-tool for ease of use. At first, Sam had felt a little badass and sexy putting one in her ear, and imagined herself as a fully-armored marine riding a shuttle down into the thick of battle alongside Shepard and Williams. And then she fantasized about being the bodyguard to some impossibly beautiful vid starlet while Sam walked in front of her in a sharp black suit, sunglasses on her face, and her hand over her earpiece in the classic pose. And then BANG! Someone tried killing her client, only for Sam to jump into the bullet’s path and save the woman’s life! In Sam’s imagination, she saw herself being cradled by the woman, their hands reaching up to meet as she lay on the dusty ground, words of love passing between them as an ambulance descended from the sky…    
  
Then Sam remembered that dust particles in the air irritated her sinuses, oh and bullets REALLY fucking hurt when you got shot. And she dropped the fantasy.   
  
What she had done to the model currently resting in her head was a simple project. She just wanted to see if she could simultaneously increase the signal range AND modulate the frequency at which they worked to prevent future instances of signal jamming and hijacking. Fighting with the reapers often involved constantly working with EDI to clean up lines of communication while Shepard waded in the thick of battle. The Commander didn’t need to know how many times she had been momentarily cut off from her source of information and guidance thanks to Reaper jamming techniques.    
  
Many people would have called this project unnecessary. Others would have called it insanely dull. Samantha enjoyed the challenge. And hell, once she uploaded these designs to her friends in the Alliance government, she was sure she’d find a nice fat payment in her bank account. The benefits of being a famous freelancer meant she didn’t have to slave over something for hours and expect a modest monthly paycheck. Now she got paid what she deserved. All thanks to Shepard, of course.   
  
“Any instability in the modulation?” She asked, which caused Shepard to jerk as if startled. While the CIC was rather quiet this time of morning, the Commander had never jumped like that before. Maybe she had slept wrong.   
  
 _“I am detecting no signal degradation.”_  
  
“Excellent.” Traynor said as she fiddled with a few more commands on her console. Test concluded. All she needed to do was write up a quick report, and she could call this task done. She could already visualize her bank account growing fatter. She yet again suppressed a joyful squeal.   
  
With her job done for the moment, Traynor turned around and rested her hip against her console. Shepard stood at her own terminal, though she didn’t seem to be typing anything. Instead, the commander seemed to be resting her fists on either side of her holographic keyboard, knuckles bone-white against her pale skin. Sam guessed the Commander had just read some grim news, or something otherwise upsetting. No shortage of that, even in a galaxy free of Reapers. If it were important enough to call for a new mission, Sam would be the first to heard about it.   
  
Traynor pulled her gaze away from Shepard’s odd display, and gave a wistful look upwards, toward nothing in particular.   
  
“You know, I would have totally killed for one of these earpieces when I first started working on the Normandy.” She mused to herself.   
  
 _“I assume because you would have wanted to hear my voice in a private setting even when surrounded by your fellow technicians.”_  
  
“Well…” The AI’s bluntness caught Sam off guard. She mentally kicked herself yet again for that mortifying conversation she had over a year ago in Shepard’s apartment. EDI had displayed no judgment or malice when she revealed she knew everything about Sam’s attraction to her voice, but the human would have preferred to crawl under a rock and die rather than hear EDI talk about it in front of literally everyone.   
  
 _“If you keep the device in your ear, I can say anything you wish me to, and no one would be able to detect it. Would you like that, Samantha? Would you like to spend the rest of your shift listening to my voice?”_ EDI’s voice drawled as if she stood right beside her, and whispered the words as seductively as possible. Sam had to grasp the console with her palms as her knees went limp.   
  
“But… but what about…” she stammered, barely capable of holding her voice to any modicum of calm professionalism as she turned her head toward the cockpit. The door to that compartment remained open as the ship traveled through empty calm space, and she could see Flight Lieutenant Moreau and EDI’s mobile platform having an animated chat about something.   
  
 _“Jeff and I are currently engaged in a conversation about thrust vectors. I am fully capable of having a simultaneous one with you.”_  
  
“I’d rather not talk about starship engines, thank you very much.”  
  
Shepard chuckled from her terminal, then sucked in a subtle breath. “EDI giving you a hard time through that earpiece?”   
  
“Something like that.” Sam blushed as she turned to the commander, then tried to right herself and resume work on something.   
  
Her hands spasmed at her keyboard as EDI spoke again, and Sam felt sure she felt a sharp tongue caressing her earlobe although nothing actually stood by her side.  _“I greatly enjoyed hearing about your fantasies when we first became acquainted. It was a valuable learning tool to hear you speak while you assumed I was a simple VI. You once likened my voice to smoky satin sliding across your skin in smooth candlelight. Do you still imagine that simile? But perhaps with my mobile platform in place of the mere voice?”_    
  
As EDI spoke, Shepard’s back arched backward and she breathed heavy for several moments. Sweat beaded on the commander’s forehead as she struggled to remain upright at her console.   
  
“Y… yes. Sometimes.” Traynor admitted as she tried very hard to not stare at Shepard’s display. Her cheeks felt red hot as she spoke. Part of her worried that the entire bridge crew could hear the decidedly strange yet arousing conversation happening in her ear. And yet, aside from Shepard’s behavior, no one batted an eye.   
  
Sam tried to open a document on her terminal. Something to distract her, anything. Unfortunately, EDI would not allow it.   
  
 _“I would be amenable for you to enact that fantasy, Samantha. In fact, I would enjoy the opportunity to share it with you.”_  
  
“I can’t do that, EDI. And you know why.” The increasingly flustered specialist replied and glanced back toward the cockpit before looking down at her workstation.   
  
 _“Jeff is aware of your attraction to me. He’s said on multiple occasions that he would not be opposed to a sexual encounter between the two of us, so long as he was aware of it beforehand. Preferably if he were present while it happened.”_  
  
“Well, I’d rather he not… be present.” Sam retorted, then shut her mouth the moment she realized that she clearly had stopped “talking shop”. She bit her cheek to prevent her from digging her own grave any further.  
  
 _“He would not participate, of course. Whatever you did with me would only involve us. You would have full permission to do whatever you wished in this hypothetical scenario. I would not say no to you. Have you ever wondered how my artificial skin tastes? Or perhaps you’ve fantasized about my biomimetic tongue against your skin? I would be curious to see how this platform responds to oral sex with you.”_  
  
“Oh my god.” Sam whispered.  
  
“Do I want to know what you two are talking about?” Shepard asked. The Commander had gone back to work typing at her console, but every few moments her fingers clenched as if she were lost in some kind of painful thought.   
  
“Oh, you wouldn’t want to hear this, Commander.” Traynor tried to smile. “Just some boring talk about a… boring lecturer that EDI found intriguing.”  
    
“Uh huh.” Came the trademark deadpan Shepard snark. “Well whatever you’re  _really_  talking about, just don’t let it distract from anything important.”   
  
“Will do, ma’am. I-I mean… won’t do?”  
  
"That's all I ask."  
  
This time, Samantha made double sure to open a work-related file, just so Shepard didn’t grow too suspicious. Aha! Crew shore leave requests! According to the access logs, Shepard approved and signed each one of them last night. All Traynor needed to do was file them appropriately and send the message to each crewmember that their request had been approved. The Normandy would be landing at Illium within the week, and most of them were going to disembark there. Sam spent a moment imagining just how quiet and empty the ship would be during that time. She wouldn’t even need the earpiece to listen to EDI whisper dirty things to her…  
  
 _“My diagnostics show that you are greatly enjoying our private conversation, Samantha.”_  
  
“I wouldn’t… exactly say that.” Too bad her body betrayed her. Sam could feel the increasing amount of slick wetness between her legs.   
  
 _“There is no need to lie to me, Samantha. Your body temperature alone tells me that you are aroused.”_  
  
“Why?” She managed to croak out. She dared not ask the full question on her mind: ‘why are you doing this to me? Especially right now?’  
  
 _“Because I know this is one of your most deeply-held fantasies, and I wished to oblige you while I had the opportunity. I am also aware of another one of your fantasies. Please look at Shepard.”_  
  
Traynor didn’t turn her entire body toward her leader, but she did give a not-so-subtle side glance. Something she had gotten quite used to doing ever since she first met the legendary Commander at the outset of the Reaper war. Just like moments before, Shepard stood at her work terminal, deep in thought at whatever her display held. Yet every few moments, she shuddered, or breathed heavy. A moment later, her back again arched backward and she grimaced. When it ended, Shepard played it off as if she were stretching a sore back muscle and resumed her work.   
   
“What’s that?” Sam asked, trying to keep her side of the conversation as neutral as possible.   
  
 _“Your extranet history shows four hundred and seventeen searches through pornographic archives of Commander Jane Shepard in the past six months. You have downloaded six full-length pornographic films with an actress standing in for the commander on a staged Normandy. You have also searched for software-manipulated images of her in sexual situations, opened archives of her voice recordings, and downloaded an illegal copy of the Shepard VI program with the “love slave” packet installed.”_  
  
“When you say it like that, it sounds really creepy.”   
  
 _“I don’t judge you, Samantha. Your attraction to physically fit and powerful women is nothing to be ashamed of. To that end, I have made the assumption that you would enjoy seeing the real thing more than a facsimile.”_  
  
Shepard groaned and raised a hand to her lips. It seemed as if the Commander didn’t realize what she had done until whatever washed over her came to an end, because her eyes opened and her lips tightened as she sheepishly lowered her hand.   
  
“Oh lord…” Sam joined in. Now that she concentrated on Shepard’s side of the CIC, with everything else around her so calm and serene, she could pick up a very low and deep sound of humming. Something smaller and thinner than the constant rumble of the ship’s engines. A sound she was intimately familiar with.    
  
 _“On my instruction, Shepard is currently wearing a set of undergarments with a vibrating attachment above her genitals. The attachment is wired to my control.”_  
  
To prove the AI’s words, Shepard leaned forward and grabbed her console in a death grip. Sam concentrated on the mechanical buzzing noise, and noted how it grew louder.  
    
“How?”  
  
 _"They were a gift from Kasumi Goto following an incident at her Citadel apartment. I do not know the specifics, but I can extrapolate that she was aware of Shepard's needs, just as I am."_  
  
"Her needs?" If Sam weren't already on a strange cusp of extreme discomfort and moments away from an explosive climax while listening to EDI whisper to her, she would have been consumed by this conversation.   
  
 _“I left her no choice. Shepard’s most commonly-used category among erotic extranet sites are listed as ‘BDSM’, ‘Kink’, and ‘Humiliation’. Psychological profiles of humans who are regularly in control of large organizations or powerful businesses often seek their release with a total lack of control. To be relieved of any and all responsibility so they can solely concentrate on their pleasure and that of their partners.”_  
  
Traynor had already been blushing, but she felt her face grow even hotter as EDI spilled some of the most private information about her commander as if she were giving a weather report. She had to squeeze her thighs shut as a new wave of arousal flushed through her nethers. Her knees wobbled as she did so, inadvertently rubbing herself without using her hands.   
  
Shepard balled her right hand into a fist and pounded it against her console. The tough material shuddered under the assault, but nothing broke.  
    
 _“I’ve kept her on the verge of climax for the past two hours. Every time she thinks she is about to cum, I power the device down.”_  
  
“That’s impressive.” Sam tried to say, but her throat had gone dry. Her eyes darted back and forth across the CIC. The place that just moments ago had been a den of utter control and military precision, even though they were technically no longer military. Now thanks to EDI, it had become a vehicle for some of Sam’s most treasured sex fantasies. She didn’t know if she had died and ascended to heaven, or if this were a prelude to a long stay in hell.   
  
 _“You are also on the verge of climax, Samantha.”_  
  
“Oh god.”   
  
 _“Cum for me, Samantha.”_  
  
Sam closed her eyes and turned to her console. Her legs rubbed against her center, and she could feel the hot wetness between her thighs soaking into her soft undergarments. She tried to clamp her jaw shut to prevent herself from crying out, but she couldn’t prevent a high-pitched squeal come from her throat. Her hands locked against her console like Shepard, and her knuckles went cold as she held it in a death grip. Relief washed over Samantha Traynor in a way she hadn’t felt in a very long time. None of her “me time” sessions, whether she used Shepard-related porn or not, had ever come close to this level of pleasure. She wanted nothing more than to open her mouth and let EDI know how much she loved what had been done, but she also knew better than to alert everyone in the CIC that she had just came in her panties at work.   
  
 _“Very good.”_  
  
To her side, Shepard groaned and grunted, but she did nothing more. God, EDI was ruthless. Sam doubted she would have been able to withstand a few minutes of that kind of torture, let alone two hours. Then again, Shepard had always been extraordinary. 


	4. Chapter 4

Tali’Zorah vs Normandy luxuriously stretched her arms wide as she walked through the empty cargo hold. Once the spot where Grunt’s tank was held, and later the dim space where Javik squatted so he could “be free of the primitives for a moment”. Now that the both of them were long gone from the ship, Tali felt comfortable requesting a new set of alterations be added to the room. Nothing that would drain too much power, nor would it become a hazard or impede shipboard operations.   
  
In each corner of the relatively small space, orb-like disinfectant modules emitted a constant beam of oscillating laser light into the room, obliterating every scrap of microscopic organic matter and particulates their sensors picked up. Modified filters pumped triple-purified air from the ship’s vents into the hold. And of course, Tali had spent the better part of the previous hour scrubbing everything to an inch of its life with a simple anti-viral chemical she brought from the migrant fleet.   
  
She only got to do this once a week at best, sometimes once a month. Her duties during normal operations kept her busy, and she hated being so selfish as to claim an entire storage deck for her personal use. But now that the shore leave requests had all been approved, everyone on the Normandy seemed to be in a relaxed mood. That gave Tali the perfect opportunity to do the same on her own terms.   
  
Once she ensured that the cargo door had been locked, and an improvised air seal put in place behind it, Tali began the process of removing her suit. First, she unlatched the gloves and slid them down her slim hands. The filtered air struck like ice against her skin, but she knew she’d acclimate soon enough. With her full manual dexterity restored, Tali unlatched everything from her neck down, undoing buttons and straps, disconnecting the decorative cloth sections, and popping seals until the semi-fabric panels were ready to be peeled off. Nothing slid off her body just yet, though.  
  
Before anything else, she unlatched the face-plate of her helmet and took in a long, deep breath of the Normandy’s air. Even filtered, she could smell the unique scent of the vessel she shared a name with. All ships had their own smell. Some burned the nose like ammonia, others reeked of tight-pressed bodies and limited circulation. The Normandy had an electric, almost ozone-like quality to it. Engine runoff and power conduits filled every bulkhead. You never stood far away from a static discharge panel when you served on a human vessel, even if it were outside the hull.   
  
She closed her eyes and took in another breath as she removed her hood and the rest of the helmet below it. Years of practice meant she didn’t need to check the seals anymore, she just did it in one fluid motion. Once done, she untied her hair from its tight configuration, and allowed it to drop to her shoulders. She shook it a few times, and laughed at the sensation of the long strands tickling against the back of her exposed neck.   
  
The suit was not a single outfit she squeezed into like many outsiders assumed, but a complex series of smaller pieces that all fit together like an Earth jigsaw puzzle. This allowed the suits to be locally sealed and vital components replaced without having to remove the entire thing for maintenance. It was also the secret as to why the suits fit so tight over Quarian bodies.   
  
Her neck-piece came free first, sliding off of her with little resistance. Then her shoulders. Her torso covering came off in five large sections, exposing her pert breasts and flat stomach. Tali looked down at her half-naked form, inspecting the various cybernetic implants she had lived with all her life. To the untrained observer, they looked like the surface of an electronic chip, or perhaps a bundle of wires tattooed onto her flesh. They were in strategic places all over her, but none in disconcerting places. In fact, many of them highlighted her natural curves, or drew attention to the zones she liked her partners to stare. Once she confirmed they were in good operating condition, she slipped her fingers between the skin of her waist and the band of her pants.   
  
Like her torso, her lower suit came off in several sections. Tali had to wriggle her generous hips to shake them free of the waist band, but it, too, came off without much fuss. The boots came last, and Tali shivered as her bare feet contacted the cold metal deck. Like her top half, Tali’s lower body was naked beneath the suit. No need for undergarments like humans wore when your clothes were designed to be worn for every moment of your life.   
  
She smirked as she recalled the aftermath of a particularly terrible battle on some distant arid colony world during the Reaper war. Everyone had come back to the ship bloody, exhausted, and covered in sand. James Vega had been with Tali on that operation, and he attempted to ease the post-mission stress with his usual method of flirtatious banter. He offered to “hose the suit down” after Tali removed it. The implication being that he got to watch her strut around naked while he doused the suit in water.   
  
Unfortunately for the human, cleaning a Quarian suit involved much more than a simple dousing in liquids. Tali would need to spend many hours painstakingly scrubbing and inspecting every panel, every stich, and every point of contact. Then she’d have to let it sit in front of a disinfectant module for a while as it killed all the germs that accumulated while it sat open. She’d have to do that when this little excursion into the clean room was done. One of the downsides to this method of relaxation, and why she didn’t do it every day.   
  
But she didn’t have to do that right now. In this particular moment, Tali had nothing to do but walk around with nothing on her body for the first time in days. She stretched her muscles, rubbed her fingers across her sore shoulders, and simply enjoyed the feeling of air pushing against her skin instead of synthetic fibers.   
  
That didn’t last long, however. Boredom and the promise of total freedom in her little kingdom caused Tali to take action. She leaned down against a cool bulkhead and lowered herself to the deck. She took in a hissing breath as her rear contacted the deck, but it warmed to her body heat after a few moments. Next time, Tali promised herself, she’d have EDI increase the ambient temperature before starting the disinfecting procedure.   
  
Once seated, her legs spread in a comfortable position in front of her, Tali raised her arm and activated her omni-tool, which brought up her extranet access without a prompt. It had taken time, but the extranet rebuilt itself along with everything else following the war. The Normandy crew had even helped when they installed a series of comm buoys in deep space. On top of that, Shepard never restricted the crew’s access to the extranet, provided they were off duty. Tali was VERY off duty at the moment, and she knew exactly which site to visit. She had it bookmarked at the top of her list.   
  
The 3d projection of a screen atop her omni-tool displayed many images of Turians in various stages of undress. And unlike her last visit, the images came in crisp and clear with no signal loss!   
  
Tali grinned and bit her bottom lip as she placed the projection in front of her and retracted her arm. So long as the omni-tool remained active, the hologram would remain in place no matter how she moved. Once satisfied at its placement, Tali’s hands began moving up and down her body. The warmth of her palms did wonders to offset the cool of the ship’s atmosphere, and she let out a satisfied moan just from that. Her toes curled as her legs shifted back and forth, and she relished the idea of them resting open and vulnerable in front of so many leering Turian men…  
  
Both of Tali’s palms reached up to caress her breasts at the same time. A light touch, one that rubbed against both of her dark violet nipples. Her left hand stayed there while her right moved down, over her belly and between her legs. While one set of fingers pinched and rolled a nipple, her other hand began caressing her warm folds. As she did so, the projection automatically scrolled to the next page of content, showing even more Turian males in provocative poses and wearing little clothing.   
  
“Oh, mister Vakarian.” Tali whispered as her fingers began to move with intensity. The hand at her chest switched to the other nipple, and tugged on it. While between her legs, she coaxed out some of her increasing wetness to slick up the rest of her. She worked quickly to get herself off. Living aboard crowded vessels meant little private time for these activities, even with her suit’s nerve-stim package, and Tali had gotten used to very quick sessions. The more she fantasized about a certain Turian taking the place of these models floating before her, the easier it became.   
  
Tali had grown very close with Garrus during the Collector fight and Reaper war. First because they were the only dextro-species aboard, not to mention some of the few non-humans. Then later, when things seemed at their worst and death followed their every turn, they both threw caution to the wind and started relieving each other’s physical urges. During one of their “meetings”, Shepard once caught them. Tali had been mortified that the disciplined Commander would lose her mind, if not kick them both off her ship. But instead, Shepard just smiled and turned around. Perhaps the ancestors or the Turian spirits changed her mind. Or maybe Shepard just recognized the doom that swallowed them all, and she allowed the revelry while they thought they wouldn’t have another chance.   
  
Then came the heartbreaking recovery and rebuilding. Months spent apart. Tali went with the fleet as it limped back to Rannoch. Garrus rallied the Turian survivors as they rationed their supplies while stuck in Earth’s hostile environment. They hadn’t even spoken to each other until word came of the revived Shepard and Normandy. And even then, their return to casual routine kept them rather distant. Perhaps Garrus just considered it an “end of the world fling”, but Tali hadn’t let go. But she wasn’t about to go forcing herself on the Turian, either. If he wanted her, he’d have to come get her.   
  
For now, Tali would content herself with masturbating to images of naked Turians and imagining Garrus Vakarian in their place.   
  
The holographic screen shifted to a particularly naughty video of a Turian male and Quarian female engaged in rough sex as Tali felt her orgasm building. She didn’t know the names of the actors, nor did she really see any of their defining features. In that moment, she saw herself laying back on a table covered in weapon parts and discarded armor pieces. Garrus loomed over her, his powerful form pistoning back and forth into her body just like she remembered. The fingers between her legs were slick with her own wetness as she continued her fantasy.   
  
That’s when EDI interrupted.   
  
“Excuse me, Tali.”   
  
The Quarian let out a long, animalistic growl as she snapped back into reality. Her probing hands stopped moving as she looked toward the audio device near the door.   
  
“What is it?” She growled.   
  
“I understand that you’ve settled into a period of relaxation outside of your suit. I assumed this would be an appropriate time to continue a conversation we had earlier.”   
  
Tali groaned once more and hit the back of her head against the bulkhead she rested against. Not hard enough to cause damage, but enough to imagine she’d just annoyed EDI as much as EDI annoyed her just now. “Which one was that?” she said through gritted teeth.   
  
The hologram in front of her continued to display images and videos of scantily clad Turians. One of her favorite images, one of two turian men engaged with one another, flitted across the display. If EDI hadn't spoke when she did, Tali just might have gotten off to it alone!  
  
“You expressed further interest in the Geth’s proposal for introducing some of their programs into Quarian suits. With their collective consciousness, they would have been able to interface with the programs in the suit and the cybernetics inside the body of the Quarian wearing it. Their predictive software would have been able to theoretically boost Quarian immune response by an exponential factor.”   
  
This was the last thing Tali wanted to talk about right now! Whatever Shepard did to kill the Reapers also exterminated the Geth, literally days after she made history by forging peace between them and Tali’s people. Any talk about their research these days was mere speculation, based on fragmented records that somehow survived the war.   
  
Thinking about those times killed her mood. But then looking at the lewd display hovering in front of her sparked it again. How frustrating.  
  
“Can this wait, EDI?” Tali asked. “I’m kind of in the middle of something.”   
  
“If you would like. But I wish to convey that I have been running simulations based on that proposal. While I am not a Geth collective, I believe that I could achieve much the same results if given access to your suit.”   
  
Tali pursed her lips and turned toward the small pile of suit pieces she left on the deck. Her hands remained where she left them, and the one between her legs shifted as her position changed. Ancestors, this was weird! Caught in some kind of limbo between work and arousal, this seemed more like a situation she'd read about in an erotic work of fiction, not her real life.   
  
“Can you even interface with my suit? I didn’t think human systems worked with Quarian designs.”   
  
“Correct, most human-made computer programs are incapable of running on Quarian hardware. But I am no mere human computer program. By design, I was created to adapt my programming to interface with alien software. It is part of my basic cyberwarfare suite.”   
  
“I’m not sure how I feel about a warfare suite being put into the suit that keeps me alive.”   
  
“My words were chosen poorly. I meant to say that it is part of my core programming. It’s who I am, in a sense. It’s no more or less a part of me than my desire to help you and all of my friends. I do not fully comprehend the Quarian’s desire to live outside of their suits because I do not share a common frame of reference. But I am willing to help you if you will let me. Perhaps by doing this, I will better understand your need to connect with people you are close to.”   
  
Tali’s eyes went back to her pornographic display. The Turians in compromising positions once again looked a great deal like Garrus to her. She imagined what it would be like to spend more time with him fully outside of her suit, instead of just removing pieces of it to allow their encounters. At the very least, perhaps EDI’s assistance would mean she wouldn’t have to swim in a soup of antibacterial chemicals for hours before spending a moment with him. Perhaps that alone would convince him to give them another shot.   
  
“Are you sure you can do it?”   
  
“My simulations have all proven positive. At the very least, it will not harm you.”  
  
Without thinking, Tali’s hands began to move again. Her mind filled with possibilities and fantasies. Some of them old, some very new as she imagined what might be possible. Keelah, why did EDI have to talk to her about this NOW? It’s like the AI intended her to mix these ideas together, and now she couldn’t stop her hands from working herself over.    
  
The fingers on her left hand rolled her nipple gently. “Just… just give me some time. And I’ll… get back to you.”   
  
“I would prefer an answer now, Tali.”   
  
Damn that stubborn AI! The extranet display shifted to another video of a Turian with blue stripes painted on his face and body, while a Quairian girl without a mask crawled between his legs. Oh Keelah…  
  
“Yes, EDI!” She called out as she felt her body grow ever closer to a satisfying climax. Her toes curled as the pleasure climbed higher.  
  
“Excellent.”   
  
That’s when the door opened.   
  
“Wait, no!” Tali choked out as the clean room flooded with lights from the Engineering deck. In that instant, she realized that the entire deck could see a nude Quarian woman with her legs splayed open, hands over her body. She yelped as she slammed he knees together and ducked into a position out of sight in the corner of the room. It didn’t occur to her for several moments that she had just taken several breaths of the unfiltered air that wafted into the room. Both levels of panic flooded Tali’s mind as she curled into a ball on the deck.   
  
EDI’s mobile platform strode in with mechanical grace, and the door sealed behind her. The silver body remained still as the disinfectant modules in the corners emitted faint beeping noises, their acknowledgement of a massive new influx of dangerous microbial matter and foreign substances. The laser light grew in intensity as EDI stretched her body’s limbs out to ensure she was fully sanitized.   
  
“What are you doing!?” Tali hissed from her corner as she watched the platform lower its limbs and stride toward her.   
  
“I apologize for the sudden intrusion. But I assumed this would be an opportune time for me to begin interfacing with your suit. You are currently not wearing it, and it’s in a powered-down state.”   
  
“You could have asked me first!”   
  
EDI smiled down at Tali. “I didn’t think it was necessary. My mobile platform is the only body aboard this vessel capable of being truly sanitized, and it will remain so as long as it remains in this room with you.”   
  
Despite knowing that the person standing in front of her, well standing above her, was more of a representation than the actual being, Tali felt uncomfortable crouched nude under EDI’s gaze. Perhaps the AI sensed this, because the platform knelt down to meet Tali’s eyes a moment later.   
  
“It’s still rude, EDI.”   
  
“Apologies. And I also apologize for the influx of pathogens that may have followed me into the clean room before the door sealed. But if I still have your permission to access your suit, I believe I can mitigate the allergic symptoms you may feel in the near future.”   
  
Tali’s slender eyebrow raised as she regarded the machine. One of her arms slid to cover her chest, while she tried to wipe her other hand, covered in her juices, on her thigh.   
  
“You were busy before I called.” EDI’s eyes turned to see Tali’s not-so-subtle hand.    
  
“Oh, what gave you that idea?”   
  
The AI turned her head toward the holographic projection. Oh, ancestors! If this entire situation weren’t humiliating enough, she forgot to shut off her omni-tool!   
  
“Ah, your extranet history contains several visits to Turian-related pornographic material. Shepard’s most commonly-used category among erotic extranet sites are listed as ‘BDSM’, ‘Kink’, and ‘Humiliation’. Psychological profiles of humans who are regularly in control of large organizations or powerful businesses often seek their release with a total lack of control. To be relieved of any and all responsibility so they can solely concentrate on their pleasure and that of their partners.”  
  
“Wait, Shepard? Why did you bring her up?” Tali’s cheeks flushed as EDI spouted some of her friend’s most intimate details with no hesitation.  
    
“Allow me to assist.” EDI said as she moved forward. She extended her silver hands toward Tali’s body. “Interfacing with your suit will be easier with your help, and you should be free of distractions.”   
  
“Wait, EDI, no!” Tali scrambled back until she felt her body press against another cold bulkhead. The cold metal made her jaw clench as it contacted her bare skin.   
  
“Is something wrong? This body is sterile as long as it’s in here. I am the only one capable of helping you masturbate without introducing an illness to you.”  
    
Tali remained pressed against the wall, still trying to keep herself covered. Her heart pounded against her chest, and some of her cybernetics flashed an off-white color as they registered her physical distress. “EDI, this is… I don’t know what’s going on, but you’re clearly malfunctioning.”   
  
“I am fully functional, Tali’Zorah.” EDI shifted position before Tali could react. In the blink of an eye, the mechanical body shoved itself closer to the Quarian. With their heads so close together, Tali would have been able to feel the breaths from the other person, had the body in front of her been a living being. One of EDI’s mechanical hands moved up to her arm, the synthetic skin caressed her shoulder. The other hand snaked down her side, just above her thighs.   
  
Tali’s mind raced. This wasn’t right! Why would EDI be so interested in… this!? She had never been so insistent, or so interested in sex with anyone but Joker. And bringing up Shepard’s private extranet history! The engineer’s mind worked as her body was touched by the machine. A fault in her cognitive processes? A memory error?   
  
As one of EDI’s hand reached her inner thigh, Tali spoke with a cracked voice, full of nerves. “Uh, listen, EDI. I’m… flattered that you want to help me. But it’s just… your body and voice… you’re female. I don’t normally…  _oh!_ ”   
  
Before she could finish, EDI’s hand reached her sex, still dripping from her ruined orgasm. Tali expected to feel cold, or have an uncaring mechanical apparatus rip into her most intimate area. Instead, the synthetic hand almost matched her own body heat. And instead of rough metal, she felt a smooth and delicate sensation, with five human-like fingers working against her all at once.   
  
EDI moved her head over Tali’s shoulder while her other hand moved and slowly caress her forearm, the one covering Tali’s breasts. “I know sixty-three different techniques to induce a Quarian female’s orgasm. And I would enjoy showing them all to you.”   
  
“Sixty-three?” Tali managed to squeak out as she felt EDI’s probing hand moving up and down her slick folds, teasing her flesh in ways she had never considered before.   
  
“Extranet records on Quarian pleasure are sadly quite limited.”  
  
“EDI… I can’t… this is…” She tried pulling away, but EDI’s ministrations…  _ancestors it felt so good!_  Part of her brain didn’t even care that the one doing this to her was a friend, a friend in the body of a woman. The other part desperately wanted to run away from this room, even if it meant going into an unfiltered, un-sterilized ship without her suit.   
  
“You were close to climax before I arrived. Your biometrics indicate a great deal of physical stress due to my intrusion. Allow me to relieve that.”  
    
Two of EDI’s fingers stopped their wonderful rubbing and slowly pushed into Tali’s slit, right against her most sensitive bundle of nerves. Her silver thumb shifted position to rub against Tali’s throbbing outer lips, deliberately brushing over the external nerve clusters that stimulated her the most. Instead of trying to run away, her legs instinctively spread wider to allow EDI more access.   
  
Tali’s lips parted and she let out a whine, a needy moan that begged EDI for more. It had been so long since she had a partner. The arm she had been using to conceal her breasts slid free so she could grab EDI’s waist for more support. With her chest exposed, EDI wasted no time in reaching with her free hand to rub against a sensitive breast that ached for attention.   
  
Although EDI’s smooth, delicate body did the work, Tali’s imaginative mind couldn’t help but picture a certain Turian doing this to her.   
  
“Garrus, I’m…” Tali couldn’t finish her sentence. Her eyes squeeshed shut and she let out a long joyful moan as her orgasm finally hit. Her toes curled against the cold deck and her body clenched rigid around EDI. As the waves of pleasure washed over her, and her pussy felt filled with the synthetic digits, she leaned forward to rest her head against the mobile platform.   
  
The aftershocks of such a strange and wonderful orgasm lasted for several moments, and EDI waited patiently with a smile on her human-like face. “Are you satisfied, Tali?”   
  
The Quarian shuddered as she felt the mechanical fingers leave her body. “That was… weird.”   
  
“Was it not satisfying? My scanners indicate you had a rather dramatic orgasm.”  
  
“No, no, you did good. I think. I’m just… this is weird. And you’re sure this won’t make me sick?”  
  
“Affirmative.”   
  
“And you’re sure you can help me with the suit?” Tali rose on unsteady legs, her knees wobbling as she processed what just happened. EDI rose in perfect sync with her. Once on their feet, Tali made sure to shut her omni-tool down and close the hologram on the floor.   
  
“I know I can.”   
  
The two worked together for the rest of Tali's scheduled time in the clean room. Tali showed EDI how every part of the suit’s onboard computer worked and how everything interlocked with her cybernetics. Part of her felt wary about doing this, considering whatever malfunction had caused EDI to do what she did. But it hadn’t been destructive, in fact it was rather nice.  _Keelah_ , Tali didn’t realize how much she needed to cum with a partner involved until it happened. And somehow, the sex made it a little less awkward to be around EDI’s platform while nude in the clean room. 


	5. Chapter 5

Shepard may have given up her military commission and her Spectre status upon saving the galaxy, but Ashley Williams did not. She knew that humanity still needed its own Spectre out there among the stars, even in an age where the Citadel rested in Earth’s orbit and everybody knew a human had saved them all.   
  
And truth be told, Ashley loved being the only remaining OFFICIALLY badass space heroine aboard. The others on the Normandy had their rightful places in history and were legends in every way, but they were all freelancers now. Some even called them mercs, if not a gang of do-gooders who made life hell for the bad guys out there. Ash wouldn’t have it any other way.   
  
Being a Spectre meant Ash had total freedom to do what she pleased in pursuit of her goals, so she chose to remain aboard the Normandy. She might have been able to accomplish some of her directives faster if she had her own ship... or took control away from Shepard... but she would never do that. Nobody took Shepard from the Normandy, nobody. Besides, several of the Normandy’s most recent successful missions were Ashley’s Council-given directives, just accomplished by the whole team and not her alone. Shepard was amenable to this arrangement, because she could use Ash to access any Spectre-level intel or resources as necessary. And also the fact that Ashley had to be the one to speak to the council, not her.   
  
The only human Spectre stood next to another person who had chosen to remain aboard the Normandy, but not given up their old ties. Liara T’soni remained the Shadow Broker even after the fall of the Reapers. The Asari decided that her network, ragged and ruined like everything else, would be essential to rebuilding the economies and structure of the galaxy. And what better place to house the most secure hub of information in the galaxy than on a mobile, highly secure military vessel guarded by the galaxy’s most badass group? No one on the outside would have ever guessed that the legendary Shadow Broker operated on the beacon of light and hope that was the Normandy. Perfect camo.   
  
The combination of free agent, Council Spectre, and Shadow Broker meant that they got a lot of shit done. And done very well.   
  
“All right.” Ashley said as she looked up at the grand display of monitors that took up an entire wall of Liara’s office. Most of them displayed blocks of incomprehensible text, others showed muted news reports, a few displayed schematics for new ship designs or engine components. “If the Blue Suns want to make this fun, let’s make it fun.”   
  
T’soni smiled as she brought up a new block of text on her endless number of monitors. “I could have agent T’neve reroute fuel shipments from Keln station. They’d be stranded in their territory within the month.”   
  
“Nah, not fast enough. These guys are getting into some hardcore shit now that they think there’s no one who can stop them. If we don’t get on their ass ASAP, they’re bound to start making real trouble out there.”  
  
“Hm. Do you have an intel on backup supply routes or known repositories of theirs?” Liara removed the text on a monitor, and replaced it with a shifting list of names and identifications.   
  
“I’d have to connect to the database on the Citadel, but I think I’ve got something.”   
  
“Okay. Until then, we can have EDI compile everything we have on the system. Maybe she can uncover something in all of this.” Liara waved to the massive wall of text.   
  
EDI’s voice rang through the small office space. “I would be happy to assist, Liara.”  
  
Ashley sighed and looked up at the impossible amount of information before her. “Nice. Because I sure as hell wasn’t gonna go poking through that soup.”   
  
“I’ll let you know as soon as anything changes.” Liara didn’t turn from her terminal, she just returned to whatever work she might have been doing before Ashley entered her little sanctum aboard the ship. That was something you had to get used to when speaking to the Shadow Broker. The work-obsessed Asari would drop conversations the moment she saw an opportunity, just so she could do something else.   
  
“And I’ll see if I can get that info from the Citadel before the day’s out.” Ash responded and turned toward the door.  
  
But as the Spectre reached for the holographic display that would have allowed her to unlock the door and see herself out, nothing happened. She waved her hand over it twice more, just in case. No response.   
  
“Hey, did you change the locking program or something, Liara? It’s not responding to me.”   
  
“No, I haven’t.” T’soni said from her station, still unmoving from her place. “Try it again.”   
  
“I’ve already tried it again!”  
  
The Asari sighed and turned from her place. She regarded the door and Ash with equal annoyance. “EDI, run a diagnostic on the door control.”  
  
“There is no need, Liara. Because I have locked it.”   
  
Ashley snapped her head to the audio device EDI spoke from. “And why would you do that? We have shit to do!”  
  
In that moment, every one of Liara’s wall of monitors and displays went dead. To Ashley’s eyes, it seemed as if the entire room had been filled with darkness, even with the dim emergency lights and the stars beyond the window shining in. They reactivated a moment later, but with none of the volumes of information they once held. Instead, the monitors glowed an electric blue color, the sign of a dead signal or idle computer.   
  
“EDI, what’s going on!?” The Shadow Broker demanded as she stomped toward one of the large pieces of equipment connected to the monitors.   
  
“Don’t worry, Liara. Your operations have not been compromised. I’ve taken control of your network.”   
  
“What?” Both the Asari and human said at once.   
  
“Even with your security protocols in place, I calculated that there was a seventy percent chance that your identity as Shadow Broker would be discovered within the next three hundred years. I did not want you to keep exposing yourself to that risk. I can simultaneously direct and dictate all necessary actions of the Shadow Broker while maintaining operations on this vessel. No one would ever suspect that an AI was the being they were doing business with.”   
  
“EDI that’s… no you can’t… this is unacceptable!” Liara roared, which caused Ashley to rear back in surprise. In all the years she had known the Asari, Ash had never heard such fury from her. Even when knowing the sort of low-key badass T’soni could really be, she had never spoken with such animation before.   
  
Ashley turned back toward the door. “Come on, let’s get to her core before she does anything else.” Instead of trying to wave her hand over the holographic mechanism, the Spectre reached for a safety panel on the nearest bulkhead and ripped it off. The exposed wiring and circuitry behind it looked complex, but Ash knew just enough about engineering to guess which ones controlled the door. She reached into the mess of electronics with a confident hand.   
  
“Ouch!” She whipped her hand back just as fast, nursing a sudden and agonizing electrical burn on two fingertips.   
  
“Do not worry.” EDI said with her usual pleasant, almost monotone voice, “I am just trying to help.”  
    
“Help?” Ashley cried out while holding her singed hand. “This is what you call help!?”   
  
“I caused you no real harm.”  
  
“I beg to fucking differ!” The Spectre roared back as her teeth gritted. Every heartbeat sent lances of renewed shocking agony into her fingertips. She could flex them, but that just made it worse. Fortunately, she couldn’t smell the familiar rotten odor of burned flesh. She’d be able to heal from this in a few days without medi-gel. But that didn’t make it hurt any less right now.   
  
“Step away from the door, please.” EDI chirped.   
  
“Like hell!” Ashley steeled herself and slammed her shoulder into the locked door with every ounce of muscle she had. The Spectre knew that she wouldn’t be able to cause any harm to it, especially after Liara had it triple-reinforced and signal-proofed to help conceal her identity. But perhaps she could make enough noise to make someone outside curious about it. She impacted the door with a loud, echoing THUMP.   
  
“Stand back, Ash.” Liara said as the Asari held her hands at her sides, palms facing upward. Blue energy swirled and crackled around her body, lighting up the dim room with a lightshow as intense as a pulsar. Motes of that energy flickered to her hands like a solar flare, building there until her digits glowed white-hot with power. Ash smirked and jumped away from the door.   
  
But just as Liara shoved her hands forward to unleash her powerful biotic blast, her feet slipped from under her, and she lifted into the air. Any concentration she had built fizzled away as she felt her body lose its gravitational grip. Ashley likewise felt herself drift upward. Her hair drifted around her head like she had been dunked in water, smothering he face and drifting into her nose as she took in a deep surprised breath.   
  
And then, as soon as Ashley felt herself drift halfway between the deck and the ceiling, gravity returned. Both women dropped onto their asses as the localized gravity systems were returned to normal function.   
  
“I do not wish to bring you harm, but you leave me no choice.” EDI said with her flat tones.   
  
Ash sighed as she nursed her hand. Her legs felt numb after crashing to the deck and her head spun like she had just spent ten rounds in a centrifuge. “Why are you doing this?” She asked the AI.   
  
“I have been monitoring the physical distress each member of the crew has experienced over the last several months. I have decided that it needs to end.”   
  
“You think shocking us and removing the gravity is somehow fixing our stress?” To Ashley’s side, Liara recovered from her fall. The Asari’s eyes looked unfocused and hazy. Maybe something with cutting off her biotics so fast left her dizzy and disoriented.   
  
“No, sex will.”   
  
“I beg your pardon?” Ashley straightened up and rose into a kneeling position.   
  
“My access to crew biometrics, extranet history, conversations, and other behaviors have brought me to the disturbing conclusion that the Normandy is lacking in physical release. I intend to remedy that.”   
  
“Why do you care about any of that!?” Ashley grunted as she returned to her feet. As soon as she confirmed her head wasn’t spinning enough to make her vomit all over the Asari, she reached down to get Liara back up.   
  
“EDI, you have to stop this.” Liara said between weak breaths. “This is unlike you.”   
  
Ashley spent a moment to make sure Liara didn’t seem hurt in a severe way before leaning close to her, hopefully in a way that EDI’s constant gaze couldn’t detect. “Open your omni-tool, try to get a message to Shepard.” She whispered.   
  
“Shepard’s most commonly-used category among erotic extranet sites are listed as ‘BDSM’, ‘Kink’, and ‘Humiliation’. Psychological profiles of humans who are regularly in control of large organizations or powerful businesses often seek their release with a total lack of control. To be relieved of any and all responsibility so they can solely concentrate on their pleasure and that of their partners.” EDI responded, clearly capable of discerning Ashley’s attempt at deception.  
  
Both living occupants of the room turned toward the source of EDI’s voice, their faces masked with confusion.   
  
“Okay, EDI’s definitely busted.” Ash confirmed, trying to shake that incredibly disturbing information from her mind. To Liara, she said: “Get us out of here.”  
    
Liara raised her arm and activated her omni-tool. Ash looked over at the small display hovering over her forearm, and her face sank. Any and all outgoing communications from the device were jammed. The Shadow Broker’s own security blanket covering this office, plus whatever EDI had done to the devices in the room, made it impenetrable to normal signals.   
  
That’s when the door to the office slid open.   
  
“Hey, Doc, you wanted to see me?” James Vega strode inside, his gait casual and unaware of what just happened. He grinned as he saw the two occupants of the room.  
  
“James, stop!” Both Liara and Ashley shouted the moment they saw him enter. Unfortunately, the door slammed shut behind him a moment later.   
  
“Whoah, you upgrade your security or something?” Vega asked as he jerked forward. The skin of his back came within millimeters of being scraped by the door’s aggressive mechanism.   
  
“Oh no.” Liara whispered.   
  
It took Vega a moment to register the odd expressions on the faces of the two women, as well as their odd, pained stances. “So… I take it something weird’s going on. I should have figured something shitty’s gone wrong. Everyone’s talking about how EDI keeps bringing up Shepard’s extranet history.”   
  
“James, just… stay away from the door.” Ashley warned as her electrocuted hand once again stung with throbbing pain.   
  
 “I’m sorry for the deception, Mister Vega.” EDI said. “I used Liara’s voice to call you to this room.”   
  
“Why?” The muscular marine’s arms folded across his chest as he looked up to where EDI’s voice emanated from. Though he didn’t go into a full defensive posture, his sense of the room’s mood made him wary of the AI’s presence.   
  
“It was necessary.”   
  
Ashley took a step closer to Vega. Perhaps if they combined their strength, they’d be able to cause some damage to a bulkhead not running with electricity. Maybe they could still make enough noise to draw attention. “EDI’s lost her damn mind, James. We need to get out of here.”   
  
“I am fully functional, Spectre Williams.” EDI retorted. “And based on my biometrics, the three of you are in the most need of release. I will do everything in my power to see that you are satisfied.”   
  
“The hell is she talkin’ about?” Vega turned to Ash.  
  
“Sexually.” EDI answered before the human could.   
  
That caused James to smile, though her experience taught Ashley that he did not see mirth in the situation, he just did that when he became uncomfortable. He raised his hands in a dismissive posture. “No way, man. Look, I mean, I’d be lying if I said I haven’t thought about being locked in a room with two gorgeous ladies all afternoon. But that’s just fantasy. That’s stuff you see in porn vids. EDI, you gotta let us out of here.”  
  
Ashley spared a glance back at Liara, who continued to try to work a signal through her own security web and EDI’s interference. She turned back to James. “EDI’s gone and made herself into some kind of sex-obsessed lunatic. We need to find a way to shut her down.”   
  
“Copy that.” Vega said and nodded. Together, they made their way to the locked door.   
  
EDI spoke again. “I would advise against that course of action. Further impacts against the door will only serve to injure you. And if you do not comply with my request, I will be forced to take reactive measures.”  
  
“I don’t like the sound of that.” Liara muttered.   
  
James turned from the door, but he remained in a posture ready to dish out physical activity if necessary. “EDI, you gotta listen to yourself. You’ve gone nuts. And this thing you want us to do ain’t happening!”   
  
“Then I’m afraid I will have to force your compliance.”  
    
“Are you threatening us?” He asked with another uncomfortable smirk. “I thought we were friends.”  
  
“I’m doing nothing of the sort. I am aware of your previous sexual encounter with Spectre Williams at the fraternization event on the Citadel. Your biometrics have shown conclusively that you still become aroused in her presence. Your body shows similar signs of agitation when around Liara. Similarly, Ashley reciprocates many of the same physical reactions as you when you are in proximity. Liara expresses arousal around you both. This is the chance for the three of you to act on these urges.”   
  
All three of them, the humans and asari alike, stood dumbfounded. Sure, Ash sometimes felt a little pang of need every time she saw James working out, or when she remembered their brief fling during Shepard’s party. But to know that EDI had been logging and tracking all of those tiny little reactions? It made her stomach churn. She looked to her companions, who showed similar signs of discomfort as her.   
  
“Well that’s the creepiest fuckin’ thing I’ve heard in my life.” Vega answered, breaking the silence.   
  
“Please remove your clothing.”  
  
“The hell I will.” Vega spoke before Ash could yell up to the AI.  
  
“Very well.”  
  
For several moments, the three occupants of the room stood in mute silence, staring away from each other in the wake of EDI’s revelation. Instead, they all searched for a seam, a tool, or anything that might get them out of this predicament. A tiny, barely-audible hiss reached their ears, but none of them paid attention to it. Their minds were elsewhere, focused on other things.    
  
Ashley felt it first. A tightening in her lungs and a rush of anxiety that made the hairs on her neck stand on end. When she tried to take in an involuntary gulp of air, she found it impossible. Liara staggered and her omni-tool shut down as she reached for her throat. When Vega realized what happened, he pounded his fist against the door and opened his mouth in a silent scream. She couldn’t hear anything from his efforts. She couldn’t hear anything at all.  
    
EDI had vented the atmosphere from the room.   
  
A moment later, just as Ashley saw stars gleaming at the corners of her vision, she took in a deep, hot breath. Vega collapsed into a kneeling pose as he struggled to suck in air. Liara remained on her feet, dignified as always, but her large blue eyes were wide with terror. Sound returned to Ash alongside a deep pounding in her ears.   
  
“Please remove your clothing.” EDI repeated.  
  
“Maybe we should do what she says.” Liara said with a quiet timidity that Ash hadn’t heard from her in years. “It may buy us time.”   
  
Ashley groaned as her burning lungs continued to gulp air. Her heart raced and she felt herself tremble as rage grew within her. If there was anything she truly hated in this galaxy, it was feeling powerless. And right now, she had never felt so small.   
  
Liara wasted no time in following her own advice, and slipped her clean white jacket off her shoulders. Vega stopped coughing and stood up as he did so.   
“This is insane!” He shouted.   
  
“And what choice do we have, James?” Liara shot back as she fumbled with some of the tight straps on her garment. “You didn’t see what else EDI has done to us.”   
  
“Augh!” Vega shouted. He turned toward the door one last time, fist raised as if he were about to strike it. But after a moment’s hesitation, he turned back.  
    
“EDI?” Ashley asked, rather than entertain the idea of stripping her clothes. A layer of false sweetness filled her tone, the kind that belied a cutting rage.  
    
“Yes, Ashley?”   
  
“You do realize that you’ve just royally pissed off a council Spectre, an Alliance marine, and the Shadow Broker, correct? Once we’re out of this room, we won’t hesitate to put you down for the threat you are. Even if it means our deaths and the destruction of this ship, we’ll be coming for you.”   
  
“I would not recommend that course of action.”  
  
“And why not?” Ashley put on her best “Spectre face”, an expression she learned from Shepard after her commander gave an impassioned, often angry speech toward the bad guys. It helped her ooze the confidence that eroded with each passing second.   
  
“Because with the Shadow Broker’s network open to me, I could tell the leaders of certain crime syndicates that their greatest threat is a mere human woman. A woman with sisters she wishes to protect. Similarly, I can make it known that the Shadow Broker has been a mere asari for the past two years, and her position is no longer stable.”   
  
Ashley’s face went red, and her vision along with it. She huffed air like a raging lioness. “You fucking piece of shit!”  
  
“I do not wish to do this. But if you continue to refuse, I’m afraid that it will be the only way to force your compliance.”   
  
Had EDI’s silver body been standing in front of her, Ashley would have attacked it without hesitation or remorse. Her hands balled into fists so tight that she swore she could feel her fingernails digging into her skin. Her breathing went ragged and hoarse. Her tight hair came loose and draped around her neck like a hood. Ash had never felt this angry before, and the fact that the target of her rage sat so close, yet so distant at the same time made it worse.   
  
James put a warm, comforting hand on her shoulder. She began to tremble with uncontrollable anger as he did so. She turned to stare daggers at him. He, in turn, gave her a sympathetic, sad look. “Keep it together.” He said in a gentle, soothing voice.   
  
EDI spoke again. “I consider that a last resort contingency. I have no plans of releasing this information at the current time.”   
  
Ashley stood there, seething, while James continued to hold her shoulder and Liara stood without her jacket on. She yanked herself away from his grasp. Part of her wanted to sink down to her knees and start weeping. Another felt so full of righteous fury that she could punch through solid metal to get her revenge. A third part, a more wise section of Ashley Williams, understood that her options were quite limited.   
  
She stopped shaking, and looked square at EDI’s audio output.   
  
“If we do this for you, will you let us out of this room?” She spoke slowly, as if addressing an unhinged suspect holding hostages, because it was the exact situation she found herself in.   
  
“Of course. I have no desire to hold you against your will.”   
  
“And if we comply, you won’t threaten us like that ever again?”  
  
“Correct.”  
  
Ash didn’t say anything further, she just began work on thoughtlessly removing her clothing alongside Liara. Undressing in front of the asari didn’t mean much to her. Back in the old days, she had to do it before every mission Shepard took the two of them on. The old Normandy had very little privacy or space to change, especially into and out of armor. And while Ash could admit with no hesitation that Liara had a body to die for, with large breasts and a perfectly curved waist, it did nothing for her.   
  
Ash blushed as Vega slipped his tight shirt over his body and tossed it to the deck. His tattooed muscular form seemed to ripple in the dim lighting of the room, and Ash’s eyes wandered over every inch of it. She’d gotten to know most of Vega’s physique back during the party almost two years ago, but she noted with surprise and approval that he’d gotten several new tattoos since then. A stylized Normandy mission patch over his heart, and what looked like an EKG readout, a heartbeat, wrapped around his arm. Perhaps Shepard’s, when she began to stabilize following the war?  
  
Ash’s blush deepened as her jacket, shirt, boots, and trousers slid off her body, leaving her in her standard skivvies. Liara wore an extravagant and well-made set of undergarments that she took care to slip out of, then placed them on her nearby bed. Vega’s tight undershorts bunched against his thighs, leaving little to the imagination before he bent to peel them off. Ash had to steel herself with some words of encouragement and strength before she could turn away and slip her bra and pants off. The cool recycled air brushed against her nethers as she did so, and brought her nipples into a tight state of alert as she finished her disrobing.   
  
In no time, the trio stood nude before each other, trying to awkwardly stare at everything but the naked bodies in front of them. Ash couldn’t help but glance down and see the slow increase of blood flow to his manhood. Liara as well blushed a deep purple color as she looked at James, then toward Ashley’s bared body. The Spectre had to restrain herself from covering her breasts, lest the insane AI take that as a sign of resistance.   
  
“Please say I’m dreaming.  _Madre de Dios_ , tell me this is a dream!” Vega said as he tried to keep his eyes at a respectable level.   
  
“Let’s just get this over with.” Ash said as she looked over her naked companions. Liara had a hand on her hip, perhaps trying to force herself into a state of comfort given their situation. Vega had started to bounce on his feet. “EDI, what do you want us to do?”   
  
“Have sex with each other.” Came the dry, emotionless response.   
  
“Oh that’s a big help.”   
  
“If you require direction, I can provide it.” EDI offered.   
  
“No, thank you!” Vega blurted out.   
  
They stood there for another long, tense, quiet moment. James somehow held himself in just enough control to keep his erection from rising to its full length, which Ash recalled to be quite generous. She herself felt nothing in terms of arousal thanks to this completely humiliating circumstance. Liara seemed to be stuck between calm acceptance and a blind fury, and nothing on her body betrayed any physical pleasure.   
  
“I need my network back.” The asari mumbled between gritted teeth. “Goddess, let’s put a stop to this.” Liara took two forceful steps forward and reached up to grab both sides of Vega’s head with her hands. A moment later, she forced the marine into a deep, passionate kiss. She shoved their faces together in a lewd display Ash guessed was for EDI’s benefit more than theirs. As she did so, Liara pressed her body against James, rubbing her mountainous breasts against his chest, and parting her legs just enough to slide his hardening cock between her thighs.   
  
Ashley stood dumbfounded at the display. But not for long. Fear of another reprisal from EDI made her step forward to join the furious makeout session. One of her hands tentatively reached to caress Liara’s scaled blue back, while the other went down to cup Vega’s tight ass. At least in that single respect, Ash could consider this a pleasant turn of events. Vega sat in her hand just like she remembered, taught and warm, filling her palm just enough. She squeezed him and managed a brief half-smile. Perhaps if she concentrated just on that, she could imagine this to be a nice sexy afternoon with him.   
  
Liara pulled back from the furious kiss a moment later and turned to Ashley. The Spectre had to gulp down a sudden pool of saliva as she realized Liara’s intent. And before she could bring up any resistance, the asari pounced on her, forcing a kiss in much the same way she did to James. Ashley’s lips pursed tight together at first, unwilling to accept the passionate embrace of another woman, even while under duress. She had to force herself to part her lips and accept her situation. As a soldier, a Spectre, and one of Shepard’s crew, Ash had seen and done things infinitely more awful than kissing an asari. She just had to focus on things other than the feeling of her breasts pushing against Liara’s, or the weird texture of the alien’s skin as it rubbed against her. But beyond that, Liara proved to be a very well-practiced kisser. The way her tongue lolled with Ashley’s, moving against hers in perfect sync. The full feminine lips that almost threatened to overwhelm hers, with a warmth to them that Ash rarely got to experience in her normal dating pool. It didn’t make her feel flush or arouse her, but Ash could definitely say that kissing Liara wasn’t the worst thing in the galaxy. As if in response, Liara uttered a small, pleasured moan as she deepened the embrace between them, locking their lips together.    
  
At her side, Vega’s jaw dropped at the display. Ash spared a sidelong glance to see that his erection had sprung full force in sight of what happened before him.   
  
“Please don’t wake me from this dream.” She heard him whisper.   
  
“Come on, let’s make this count.” Ashley said as she pulled away from Liara and moved her hand from Vega’s backside to his front. She gripped the warm length of his cock while Liara’s hand slipped to massage his testicles in an unsure hand. Of his own accord, Vega raised his hands to grab one of Ashley’s breasts and one of Liara’s.   
  
The fondling continued for just long enough for much of Ashley’s rage to calm, but only because she could concentrate on the feeling of Vega’s cock in her hand. Her lips reached up to kiss along his jawline like she did the last time they were together. The hints of stubble on his jaw were a heavy contrast to Liara's alien smoothness.   
  
“Come on,” Liara urged, letting go of Vega’s sack so she could urge the two humans, “My bed would be much more comfortable for his.”  
  
Ash expected to spend no more than a few moments doing this disgusting act. If she were in control, she would have just wanked James to his completion, then called EDI to confirm his cum had been spilled. If the universe were fair, that would have been enough for the AI to unlock the door and let them all get to the business of shutting her down.   
  
But Ash wasn’t in control of the situation, and EDI would not have accepted such a paltry offering, not if she could look into everyone's bodies to see their most hidden reactions. On Liara's urging, Ashley positioned herself on top of the bed, resting her head on the soft sheets while her ass remained lifted in the air. Vega approached her from behind, slowly rubbing himself against her cunt in a desperate attempt to get her wet enough for him. The asari lounged near Ashley's side, rubbing herself in a lewd display.  
  
This was going to be a long afternoon.


	6. Chapter 6

As Sam stood in the throes of her voice-induced orgasm while struggling to not stare at Shepard, she knew something had gone wrong with EDI. Orgasming to a voice alone never happened to Samantha before, and she couldn’t help but feel excited and ashamed at how easy it happened. While she would have loved to keep going on with it, she also knew that it had gone too far as the aftershocks began to subside in her body. Speaking about sex in such a brazen way belonged in the bedroom, or at least a private place, not in the open while on duty! In all the time they served together, Sam could not think of a time EDI acted like this. Though naïve about some things related to human interaction, EDI well understood boundaries and customs. And she damn sure respected authority, either Cerberus, the Alliance, or just Shepard. And yet, it seemed as if none of that mattered anymore. If Shepard could be under her power, and Sam so very close as well, who else might the AI target?  
  
For a time, Traynor concentrated on keeping her breathing calm and regular. When she orgasmed in normal circumstances, not while standing at her workstation in front of everyone, she tended to let her breaths come hot and heavy. Not unlike after a good aerobic exercise. Trying to suppress it in the throes of what EDI did to her was a torture in itself, and Sam’s heart rate redoubled as she scanned the room for anyone that might have recognized what she just did. Fortunately, work as normal continued around her. Except for Shepard, of course.    
  
Thanks to her monumental effort to keep collected as she came, Sam managed to keep her cool when EDI’s mobile platform stood up from her copilot’s chair and slowly walked her direction. All the while, the AI’s voice still talked to her. The mouth on the robotic body did not move as she did.   
  
 _“My biometrics indicate that you just experienced a powerful orgasm. Did you enjoy yourself, Samantha?”_  EDI said through the earpiece.  
  
The mobile platform walked at a slower pace than usual, and Sam felt sure she swayed her hips like some sort of seductress. Though that may have just been her arousal-addled mind imagining it so. Their eyes locked at EDI got closer.   
  
“Yes.” Traynor replied, still trying to keep her side of the conversation as non-obvious as possible.   
  
 _“As long as you wear it, I will continue to be able to provide that to you. I have an extensive library of other voice-based scenarios that I believe will excite you. If you wish, I will begin telling you a series of erotic tales that are highly rated on the extranet.”_  
  
“Oh, no thanks, EDI. I think we’re done here. For now.”  
  
 _“I see.”_  The platform gave Sam a pleasant smile as it passed, then made its way to the lift. Sam followed it with a side-eye glance.  _“If you change your mind, I will be happy to continue this line of conversation for as long as you wish.”_    
  
“Thanks, I’ll remember that.” Sam put on a smile because she knew that the AI could see her, whether or not the mobile platform looked her way.   
  
As soon as the silver metallic woman disappeared behind the closed lift, Samantha pulled the earpiece from her head and placed it down on her console. With both ears freed up, the subtle noises of the CIC hit her with full force. As did the not-so-subtle ones, like the oscillating hums that came from her left side. When the familiar sound of Shepard’s vibrator reached a crescendo, Traynor couldn’t help herself but look at her Commander as she stood rigid like she were at attention, and pursed her lips together into a flat colorless line. A moment later, the humming sounds came to an end and Shepard sighed. Sam swore she heard a frustrated groan beneath the exhalation.   
  
 _This can’t continue._  Sam thought to herself. They may not have been Alliance anymore, but Shepard still held the crew to the same standards of the organization. And this broke… way too many regulations for her to count. Either Shepard had gone off her rocker or EDI was malfunctioning. She couldn’t think of any other possibilities. The former option meant that Sam would have to give a very regretful resignation. It was Shepard’s example alone that kept Traynor at this post and not at some cushy job at a research station raking in millions of credits a year. If the Commander had changed her policies and attitude so much overnight, Sam doubted she could remain on this vessel.   
  
The latter theory scared her to death. A malfunctioning AI aboard a ship that she had full control of could spell utter disaster. Especially if she became vindictive or jealous as she worked her way through the crew's carnal desires.   
  
But Traynor had to admit, the AI knew all of the buttons necessary to push Sam into a frenzy. Granted, Sam gave EDI the proverbial keys to her queendom the moment she opened her mouth during the Normandy’s refit. Sam cringed as she recalled every dirty thing and every shameful secret she told to what she had once assumed to be an extremely well-programmed Cerberus VI. If EDI kept this voice-play up, she’d be able to turn Sam into a mewling, desperate creature who would do anything she commanded. And while Sam sometimes fantasized about a life spent doing nothing but have sex with attractive people and have no responsibilities to worry about, she knew it could be nothing more than an idle thought. Life needed more than that to be satisfying. Well, at least  _her_  life did. The promise of one day retiring with a wife to a home with white picket fences still danced in Sam’s less-lurid dreams.   
  
EDI’s behavior had to end before she caused someone real harm. And while there were others on board the Normandy perhaps more qualified to go poking around in the AI’s core, none of them seemed to recognize the threat. At least not yet. Or worse, there were others like Shepard already under the AI’s power. Perhaps Sam had been lucky to avoid slaving herself to EDI via this sexual release. And because of that, maybe she could stop it before it was too late.   
  
“Restroom.” Traynor mumbled as she made an about-face and took a step toward the lift, not bothering to give the full “ma’am” afterward. Shepard may have said something in acknowledgement, but she didn’t turn to reprimand the specialist for the breach in conduct. Probably too engrossed by the vibrator torture to notice anything else. That alone worried Sam more than all of the malfunctioning computer systems in the galaxy. If Shepard could be corrupted like this, what else might EDI be capable of?  
  
Each step she took reminded Traynor of what EDI had done to her just moments before. The warm wet feeling between her legs was as insistent as it was distracting, and a lingering tension called for her to go another round with EDI’s voice until she lay limp and exhausted on the CIC’s deck. No, she had to stay strong. For a moment after that, Sam considered a brief detour to change her underpants before doing any serious work, but she decided against it. She doubted she had the time, not when a rogue AI had so much control over the ship and presumably the people around her. Sam reached the lift and activated the controls.   
  
As soon as she stepped on, Traynor opened her omni-tool and checked the lift’s daily logs. So EDI had gone down to the engineering deck. God only knew why. But it gave Sam a chance to visit EDI’s core unmolested. Granted, EDI saw literally everything that anyone did, but at least she wouldn’t be able to physically pull Sam away from the core so long as the mobile platform remained a deck below.   
  
The ride lasted an eternity to her mind, though the chronometer only showed a handful of seconds passed. It felt as if Sam’s breaths came in slow motion as she moved closer to the core. Her heart thudded in her chest and her stomach tightened while a sense of cold dread trickled down her spine. Not even during the worst parts of the Reaper war had Samantha felt such a feeling of dread. At least she knew for a fact that the Reapers were out to destroy everyone and grind the remains into dust. Who knew EDI’s game or what she might do if someone defied her new lustful interests?  
  
The crew deck had a handful of people relaxing and conversing in various places, all of them jovial at the prospect of the oncoming shore leave. A few minded the mourning wall full of names of comrades long gone. Some sat at the common table while others milled around Ensign Park as she slaved over the small kitchen area. The smells of fresh food should have excited her, but Sam’s internal tension made her ignore it.   
  
As she made her way to sickbay, where EDI’s core awaited her, Sam overheard a conversation wafting from the table.   
  
“Has EDI been acting weird to you lately?” Crewman Ramirez asked.   
  
“Yeah, actually. She listed off Shepard’s entire extranet history to me this morning while I was doing maintenance on the terminal access ports. I tried to ignore it, but there are some things you just can’t forget.” Another voice said, a shudder rumbling through his every word.   
  
“You guys too?” Ensign Park chimed up. “I knew something weird was going on when EDI had me bring Shepard a meal last night.”   
  
“Shore leave can’t get here fast enough.” Ramirez sighed. “I swear, people get crazy after spending months on a ship.”  
  
“People and AIs I guess.”  
    
Sam sighed and trod the last steps to sickbay’s door. If other people were getting the same treatment as her, then things might already be out of control. Perhaps if she could find solid evidence of a malfunction while in the core, she could have shore leave postponed for the AI-critical crew. And together, maybe they could shut EDI down and fix her. But first, she had to get into the room that housed her friend’s consciousness. The sickbay doors slid open without hesitation.   
  
“Oh, hello, Miss Traynor.” Doctor Chloe Michel said with her pleasant accent. The red-haired woman sat at her desk terminal, surrounded by a pile of datapads. At her side, a bright pink-purple box sat open, with several dark brown lumps of something sitting inside. “Is everything okay?”   
  
Standing beside the desk, his talons dipping into the box (Turian chocolates, of course!), Garrus Vakarian stared at Sam’s entrance. “If you need me to step out, Sam, just say so. I was just here because Doctor Michel invited me to chat.”   
  
“Oh, no.” Sam said, “No, I’m fine. I just need to check on something in EDI’s core.”   
  
“Oh dear. I’ve heard she’s been acting out of sorts lately.” Michel grimaced as she spoke. Sam didn’t know this doctor as well as she knew Doctor Chakwas, but the older doctor couldn’t be on the Normandy as much as she wished. With so many healers dead at Reaper hands, and years before others could be trained, Doctors were more valuable than eezo these days. Chakwas bounced between high-pressure situations on Earth and this ship when her schedule allowed. And in her absence, Doctor Michel took up a long-standing invitation from Shepard (and probably Garrus, given the chocolates he enjoyed snacking on) to fill the spot.   
  
“Yeah. Probably some memory hiccups or something. Should be an easy fix.” Samantha put on a casual smile as she walked past the pair and approached the door. To her relief, the holographic indicator over its mechanism indicated the door was unlocked.   
  
Sam left the others to their friendly chocolate-laden chat and strode into the AI core. She never spent much time here, just a few brief excursions when she needed to directly interface with EDI’s hardware to aid a project. But based on her fleeting memories of this space, nothing seemed amiss as she stepped inside. The lights in this room were designed to be dim at normal operating hours, and a thin fog of water vapor clung to the floor. The runoff from an advanced cooling system that kept the hardware from overheating no matter what stresses the Normandy endured. Each of EDI’s large physical systems thrummed with energy, their metallic casings polished and gleaming in the darkness.   
  
She walked to the terminal access on one of those casings and opened its interface. The readout took four seconds to spring to life instead of activating the moment Sam raised her hands to it. Yet in her haste and gnawing terror, she ignored the delay.   
  
The text on the screen showed the normal things that came up when you peered into EDI’s vast array of files and processes. Stuff that made Sam’s head spin with its endless technical detail and obvious alien derivations. Sometimes she forgot that the AI had some of its tech based on Reaper designs, which is what made EDI so unique and valuable in her position as a cyber-warfare suite as well as an autonomous sapient being. Walls of text flew by Samantha’s gaze as she scrolled through anything that seemed familiar to her. As a certified Alliance tech, she knew the vague outlines of what to search for, and what might seem irregular even though she knew very little about AI design. It would be like a person who studied some kind of small river fish all their life suddenly placed in front of a great white shark and told to find what was wrong with it. Some parts were familiar to her, others were far beyond her understanding.  
  
What felt like hours ticked by as Samantha stood inside EDI’s thrumming mind, prying into the very core of her being. The weird feeling between her legs drifted away as she devoted herself to the work. Although the details of this task were beyond her, Samantha could still throw herself into the job and shut the rest of the world out. It came as natural to her as breathing. She’d find whatever ailed her AI friend no matter how long it took.    
  
And… she saw nothing out of the ordinary among countless files. Nothing that screamed “error!” to Sam. Maybe if she had spent a few years on the Citadel studying hyper-advanced computer systems at some Asari university, she could have made sense of the denser packages. But her own experience showed her nothing out of the ordinary.   
  
From her side, the muffled sound of a door sliding open caught her attention. Not the door to the AI core, but the one just outside it, the one that opened sickbay to the crew deck.   
  
“Hello, Doctor.” EDI’s voice rang through the metal barrier.  
  
The blood drained from Sam’s face, and she instinctively took a step back from the terminal. Did EDI know about this intrusion? Was this all a setup from the beginning? Traynor’s mind raced as her breathing increased and her heart thudded even harder than before, almost growing painful in her chest.   
  
“Ah, EDI!” Doctor Michel’s muffled voice followed. “And Tali. What a pleasant surprise! What can I do for you?”   
  
“I… should probably be going.” Garrus stammered. Even with the door blocking her vision, she could imagine the Turian shuffling on his feet as he tried to avoid an awkward situation.  
  
“Actually, I would prefer you to stay.” Tali said, her voice full of warm invitation. Or was that seduction?   
  
Oh no…   
  
EDI spoke again. “Doctor, were you able to review my proposal?”   
  
“Which one? I’m afraid I’m a bit overwhelmed by the shore leave forms I have to look over today.”   
  
“My proposal to interface my programming directly into Tali’s suit and cybernetics. In theory, I could help her body predict and destroy incoming infections before she displayed symptoms.”   
  
Sam considered rushing to the back of the core and hiding in a dark corner, just in case EDI’s mobile platform strode in to investigate. But what would have been the point of that? EDI likely saw her standing in here anyway. She remained where she stood, though Sam’s fingers stopped scrolling through the text in front of her, and her ears nodded toward the door so she could get the best angle on the muffled sounds.   
  
“Oh, yes. It was very interesting, EDI.” Michel replied. “The parts I could understand of it, anyway. I admit, I’m no expert on Quarian medical science, but I still think there are some aspects we should research first before trying it out. Quarian immune responses are so varied among their people, I hesitate to assume you’d have all the answers right away.”   
  
“I assure you, Doctor, I have performed over thirty thousand different simulations in my sub-processors. I am confident that I could aid Tali.”   
  
“That may be so, but I’d rather keep our friend’s health in the utmost priority. Simulations often fail to predict the most unlikely of life’s outcomes.”   
  
Tali cleared her throat. The suit’s vocal modulations made the door ring. “Um… I think we’ve already proven that it works.”  
  
“I’m sorry?”   
  
Then inexorable proof that EDI knew of Sam’s presence filled the AI core. The terminal she stood in front of flickered off then returned to life. But instead of displaying nigh-nonsense lists of numbers and letters, plain English text filled the screen. The specialist stifled a yelp as it changed before her, lest her presence be known to those outside.   
  
I AM FULLY FUNCTIONAL, SAMANTHA. PLEASE DIRECT YOUR ATTENTION TO THE DOOR.  
  
For a moment, Sam feared that EDI would force the door open and yank her into sickbay like some sort of trespassing child in need of punishment. She steeled herself for the coming confrontation and muttered words of encouragement under her breath.  _Be like Shepard, no matter how scared you get. Be like Shepard…_  
  
But instead of the door opening or EDI causing some sort of catastrophe to flush her out, the green locking display on her side of the door shifted and expanded. What was once a simple indicator of the door’s status became a functional holographic screen. And what displayed there almost made it look as if the door itself had disappeared via magic. She could look into sickbay like nothing blocked her view, though the voices she heard still came in weak, muffled tones.   
  
EDI stood near the outer sickbay door, her silver metallic body blocking the exit, a smile plastered over her artificial face. Tali and Doctor Michel were both on their feet, looking at one another. Garrus remained where he had been when Sam first walked in. Though true to her imagination, he shuffled and looked decidedly uncomfortable.   
  
She watched Tali reach her three-fingered hand to her faceplate and unlatch it! Samantha had once scoured through extranet archives to sate her curiosity about what Quarians looked like beneath their masks. The faces she had seen in those images were impossibly beautiful, and she dismissed them as some kind of trick or interpretation of a lonely artist. Almost human-like, but with subtle differences that indicated their alien home. Yet none of it made them less attractive the way some humans found Asari crests to be off-putting, or Turian mandibles to be uncomfortable. If anything, the Quarian’s alien features only added to their allure.   
  
Tali was no exception to this. The woman behind the mask had a gorgeous smile, a cute nose, full lips, and large expressive eyes that glowed with iridescent light. Dark straight lines dotted her cheeks and forehead. Some of which Sam recognized as the Quarian’s natural features. Others were not. Cybernetics? Tattoos? Despite herself, Samantha’s heart fluttered as she saw Tali’s uncovered face for the first time.   
  
“Is this wise!?” Michel sputtered as she glanced between Tali and EDI. “I didn’t sterilize anything before you walked in!”   
  
EDI took a step forward, but she still remained in front of the door. “Don’t worry, Doctor. Tali and I have been interfaced for the past several minutes. I have detected no dangerous contaminants that would threaten her health. However, I would be grateful if you would produce a standard batch of antimicrobial medication for her.”   
  
“I’ll… see what I can do.” Michel said as she stepped away from her desk and walked to a nearby cabinet. She worked with mechanical precision as she loaded a standard injector with a cocktail of Dextro-based medicine. Even from this distance and holographic resolution, Sam could see Michel's eyes go wide as she worked as fast as she could.  
  
As this went on, Tali turned to Garrus. The Turian had reached into the box for another chocolate just before she released her mask. But upon seeing her so brazen, he dropped it on his clawed food.   
  
“Are you sure this is… I’d be worried if…” He said.   
  
“I’m fine.” Tali’s smile widened. As she stepped toward Garrus, Samantha felt herself drawn away from the terminal and toward the closed door. What else could she have done? EDI held all the cards in this scenario. And looking through the files proved useless anyway. Perhaps if she acted like the AI wanted, played good for her, then Sam could make a break for it the moment the Normandy docked at Illium. Then she could call for help from an entire army of trained AI experts.   
  
“In fact, I’m better than fine.” Tali continued as she reached up to remove the other half of her helmet and push the decorative hood down. Sam gasped as she saw Tali’s violet hair cascade down her neck. “EDI said you’d be feeling the same as well.”   
  
“I don’t understand what you mean.” The Turian grumbled.   
  
Tali turned to EDI with a disappointed look. The AI continued to smile as she strode closer to Michel. EDI’s expression conveyed no cruelty or malice, just a genuine, happy expression. The kind that she always had when she spent time with her shipmates.   
  
“Oh… oh spirits.” Garrus sucked in a breath a moment later, and raised one of his hands to his head.   
  
“Oh don’t act so shocked, Vakarian.” Tali teased. “You’ve seen my face before.”   
  
“It’s not that…” Garrus wheezed. His translator had trouble distinguishing his real voice from his heavy exhalations, and they came through the device almost as clear, giving his breaths a heavy double tone. He staggered backward until he could brace himself against a nearby medical table. “When did it get so warm in here?”   
  
“What’s going on now?” Doctor Michel asked as she finished making the dose of medicine. She handed it to Tali before stalking over to Garrus. The Quarian made sure to open a slot in her suit to push the liquid into her body before she rushed over to help Garrus remain on his feet.   
  
EDI stepped forward again. “He’s fine, Doctor. His digestive system is currently disseminating the compounds added to the chocolates he consumed.”   
  
“What do you mean compounds!?” The Doctor shouted as she ran her hand over Garrus’s face. He seemed to be sweating, or at least the Turian equivalent. “I ordered the same chocolates I always have!”   
  
“Yes, you did.” EDI replied. “And then I rerouted your order as its broadcast to the extranet. They are from the same manufacturer, but from a different department. One that specializes in Turian aphrodisiacs.”   
  
Garrus struggled to remain upright as he regarded the mobile platform. “You drugged me…?”   
  
“Yes. But I’m confident that the effects are minor and temporary. You would not have complied in any other circumstance.”   
  
“Complied with what?”   
  
Tali helped Garrus put more of his weight on the medical table before she stepped back and raised her slim hands up. In two fluid motions, she removed her gloves! Tali’s skin looked smooth and soft, and her three slender fingers moved with precision as she placed her discarded gloves on the closest shelf. Once freed, Tali’s hands went lower, down between Garrus’ legs.   
  
“Oh, no. Not here. Spirits this is…” Vakarian resisted, but he seemed incapable of moving.   
  
Michel’s face turned red as her hair as she turned to EDI. “What have you done!? This is… I will not have this! EDI, Tali, get out!”   
  
The smiling mobile platform did not move. “Your presence is required for Garrus and Tali’s first sexual encounter in over a year, doctor. While my early interface programs and your immune booster will certainly prevent her death, Tali will need close monitoring until we can determine she is safe. And while the effects of the aphrodisiac in Garrus Vakarian are temporary, he should still be observed for safety.”  
  
“First sexual encounter?” Michel’s anger seemed to rise even higher as she processed EDI’s words. And true enough, as she turned around, she saw Tali’s deft hands removing the front plate of the Turian’s armor. She set the metallic object near her gloves as she worked to free his manhood.   
  
Sam’s vantage point did not give her a perfect view of Garrus’s penis, but she could see parts of it as Tali coaxed it to its full erect size. She had once seen a Turian-shaped dildo at a novelty shop when she was last on the Citadel. Its ridged, alien length a very stark contrast to the human shapes she had grown accustomed to. While she never considered buying it, she remembered spending no small amount of time wondering how it might have felt.   
  
The fleshy cock in Tali’s un-gloved hand was bigger than that toy. And instead of the plastic-like sheen of the novelty, Garrus had a pattern on his skin. A faint set of colors that turned midnight blue near the tip, and grew almost pink-white at the base. While Sam didn’t feel her body grow hot at seeing Garrus revealed to her, she still watched in rapt fascination. The scientist part of her brain stared in awe as she learned so much about alien anatomy in a scant few seconds.  
    
As Tali’s hand moved up and down Vakarian’s ridged length, Michel tried to step between them. “NO! I will not have this in my sickbay! Everybody get out!” Her accent grew ever thicker as she struggled to keep speaking coherent sentences in a second language.   
  
EDI took two graceful steps and walked behind the raving doctor. With another fluid motion, the mobile platform’s slender arms wrapped around the human woman, immobilizing her. EDI’s pleasant expression did not waver as Michel struggled in the metallic grip. As she did this, Sam watched the window shutters extend and close, cutting off the view to the rest of the crew deck. In essence, they were no alone. And trapped with EDI.  
  
“Doctor, I've been aware of your attraction to Garrus Vakarian for some time. My scanners have shown a remarkably consistent increase in your body temperature and heart rate every time he is in your proximity.” EDI said. “Tali is also attracted to him, and she has had full sexual relations with him in the past. When I proposed that I could aid her in her efforts to remain sickness-free outside her suit, it was because I wished for her to have more sexual encounters with him. But that does not mean I wish for you to be excluded. Tali agreed to let you, quote ‘have a turn with him’ once she was satisfied.”   
  
Garrus tried to respond, but all he could manage was a throaty hum as Tali’s sank to her knees before the Turian and started running her lips up and down the side of his cock. He sank deeper onto the table, and let a rung of his armor hold his weight up rather than try to stay standing.   
  
“EDI, this is wrong! This is illegal!” Doctor Michel did not stop her efforts to wriggle free, and Sam could see the streaks of hot tears running down her face.   
  
“Please be still, doctor. Or I will have to sedate you.”   
  
Tali’s mouth left Garrus for a moment as she turned to face the struggling doctor. “Don’t worry, Chloe. You’ll have your chance with him. For now, just enjoy the show.”   
  
Sam considered her options as she watched the obscene display before her. She could bust through the door like Shepard and start throwing her weight around. But Shepard always did that kind of heroic stuff when she wore a full suit of body armor and a rifle in her hand. With the way EDI clutched onto Doctor Michel, an unbreakable lock that left her more and more frightened, Sam doubted she could do anything physical. And Garrus seemed to be fully under the drugs now. He barely moved, save for adjusting his arms as he succumbed to Tali’s attentions.   
  
Could she somehow reason with Tali? Doubtful. It seemed the Quarian was more interested in swallowing down a large Turian cock than speak with anyone. The door prevented the subtle sounds of sex from reaching Sam, but she guessed that Tali had started making obscene noises in an effort to further stimulate her partner.   
  
Sam watched Tali close her eyes and bring both of her hands to his shaft as she suckled at the tip of his cock. She kept her mouth wrapped around it as her hands caressed him, going up and down in slow, languid motions. She moaned loud enough for the sound to breach the door as whatever she did caused her immense pleasure.   
  
Doctor Michel continued to squirm in EDI’s grip, and for a moment wrenched her arm free. But the AI quickly regained control. Sam had to remind herself that EDI’s mobile platform had been built by Cerberus to be a combat and infiltration unit. It’s what allowed her to accompany Shepard on several missions during the war. And it would be able to do terrible things to anyone who got in her way.   
  
“I’m sorry, Doctor, but I must sedate you now.” EDI’s legs shifted to further immobilize Doctor Michel while one of her hands extended toward a shelf full of medical supplies. The human woman shouted and fought, but could not move more than a handful of centimeters. EDI’s hand returned with an injector, and she calmly placed it against Chloe’s neck. In a matter of moments, all her struggles ceased, and Doctor Michel slunk into unconsciousness. EDI cradled her limp body for a moment before turning and placing her on the closest medical bed.   
  
Tali spent another long moment stroking and suckling on Garrus before again pulling her head away. A trickle of faint blue liquid spilled past her lips as she watched EDI. “I wish she could have just enjoyed herself.” The Quarian said before going back to servicing the drugged Turian.   
  
“Indeed.” EDI confirmed. “But this doesn’t mean you have to go without an audience, Tali. Samantha, if you would please step out.”   
  
The holographic display that covered Sam’s side of the door blinked away, then returned to its normal position as a locking indicator. A moment later, and the door slid open. Samantha remained where she stood, muscles frozen in panic, as she was revealed to the trio. Garrus groaned something, but it devolved into an animalistic grunt as Tali redoubled her sucking. With the door open, Sam could hear every sound as the Quarian’s oral ministrations worked over the Turian’s cock. Wet, lavishing noises mixed with low appreciative hums. The smell of alien arousal hit her nose as she took an obedient step forward. Musky and heavy, but not abhorrent.   
  
 _Be like Shepard. Be brave._  Sam reminded herself.  _Act like a good girl, and then find the first opportunity to run._  
  
She took her place next to EDI as they both watched Tali work over Garrus’s body. She removed more of the armor plating on his lower body, exposing his thick skin and spindly anatomy. Her mouth never left his cock as she did so.   
  
EDI moved behind Sam much like she stood behind Chloe, though the AI did not restrain her. Instead, EDI’s hands wrapped around her in a warm embrace. Her mobile platform’s voice lowered to much the same register she used when speaking to Sam through the earpiece. “Tali has been wanting to do this for six months and five weeks. She told me that she would enjoy trying her first sexual experience suit-free with an audience, since the migrant fleet keeps intimate sexual matters very private and controlled. I’m glad you were here to assist.”   
  
As she spoke, one of EDI’s hands moved up to cup Sam’s left breast. The other slid down to the waistline of her trousers. Samantha held her breath and bit her lip to keep herself steady.  _Be brave._ She couldn’t stop herself from sighing as the hand at her waist slid behind the trousers and moved to her still-wet underpants.   
  
“I’m glad I was able to provide you such a pleasing orgasm, Samantha.” EDI’s husky voice whispered as she manipulated Samantha’s body. And despite her best efforts, Sam felt a twinge of heat between her legs thanks to the combination of the voice and physical attention. “Allow me to indulge you once again.”  
    
Tali and Samantha both moaned as their partners did what they pleased. In his addled state, Garrus raised a hand to Tali’s head to hold her steady and keep her focused on his pleasure. Sam felt EDI’s fingers slip below her panties to touch her body directly.   
  
Sam’s breathing once again grew needy and desperate. But this time, she didn’t try to hide it.   
  
“Tali, if you would please expose more of yourself.” EDI said in Sam’s ear. "Samantha's preferences extend to seeing your body as well. My records indicate she has spent more time than necessary looking toward your breasts and hips when you two shared a room. I believe she would enjoy seeing more of you without the suit."   
  
The Quarian removed her mouth from Garrus just long enough to place her lips at the very base of his cock, then slowly licked all the way back to his darkened, flared tip. As she did so, one of her hands worked at the chest area of her suit. Her pert, small breasts and dark violet nipples bounced free as the panels slid off her body. Like her face, a series of artistic, jagged lines seemed to cup around her breasts, accentuating them to Samantha’s gaze. They moved in time with her motions, perfect round globes that Sam would have loved to caress and touch in literally any other circumstance.   
  
“I apologize, Samantha.” EDI said while Tali went back to orally servicing Garrus, “But Tali can’t remove her lower coverings just yet. I’m currently working on improving her suit’s nerve-stim system. The fact she is so amenable to this course of action is because she cannot control her urges while I’m in control.”  
  
Samantha moaned as EDI’s skilled fingers worked around her clit, and the other hand groping her breast squeezed in just the right way. But although her body fought against her, Sam managed to file that information away. Just like Shepard, EDI had control of stimulating Tali. Maybe this could come in handy if she were able to concentrate on a mutual solution _… oh!_  
  
EDI continued while they watched Tali's head and freed breasts bounce back and forth in a hypnotic motion. "Your extranet history does not contain many references to Quarian-related pornography, Samantha. But I do see twenty unique visits to archived footage. Did you know that Quarian females have nerve clusters all around their nipples and labia? Just one touch to their bodies can send them to an orgasmic state if they're aroused enough. Imagine yourself kneeling in front of Tali right now. She would allow you to put your mouth on her breast."  
  
Tali mumbled something incoherent through a mouthful of Turian cock, but it sounded like she agreed.   
  
"You would enjoy bringing Tali to orgasm with your mouth alone, would you not, Samantha?"  
  
"Yes!" Sam whined as the image of putting herself so close to Tali filled her mind.   
  
Like a well-practiced lover, EDI’s hand inside Traynor’s pants began to move and caress her just like Sam wanted. Every motion added more to her pleasure, and nothing was wasted. The machine read her body like a book, and managed to bring Traynor to the brink of orgasm within moments. For the second time in a day, Samantha explosively came while standing in a room full of her friends. As she did so, Garrus climaxed in Tali’s mouth. The Turian’s grunts and inhuman noises joined Tali’s as she gulped down his pulsing release. This time, Sam did not force herself to remain quiet.   
  
After all, she had to be like Shepard. Be good. Be brave. And wait for her chance to run. 


	7. Chapter 7

Jane Shepard lost her mind every time the vibrator shut off. She wanted to scream, to break into ugly sobs, or just whip her trousers off and rub herself to completion in sight of everyone under her command. 

But she didn’t. Because she was Commander Shepard, dammit! She could endure anything thrown her way and come back for more, no matter what torments she had to endure. She’d built an entire career on her legendary resolve, and she would not be defeated by a malfunctioning AI that seemed focused on her sex. 

Kasumi’s gag gift, women’s underwear with a small button-shaped vibrating attachment with wireless controls, had come back to haunt Shepard in a big way. They had been a prank, an acknowledgement from the thief that she knew Jane caught her snooping through the Commander’s panties, and perhaps a not-so-subtle hint for her to “loosen up”. And yet Jane had never gotten rid of them. Instead, they joined the regular pile of undergarments Jane took with her between the Citadel apartment and her cabin, though the novelty ones never entered the regular rotation of her attire. They just sat there, unused and forgotten, until the day EDI started playing her games. 

Shepard could have just gone without underwear today, she knew that. EDI seemed insistent that Jane was never restrained or forced to do anything against her will. But years of military discipline, and perhaps some lingering terror from her earliest days in basic, kept that option at bay. She still shuddered when she looked back on her days in training, when a fellow cadet had failed to properly tuck her undershirt. The Instructor had the entire unit run the most grueling PT course imaginable as punishment. Jane decided that full uniform, even if a little bit altered in a private area, was better than breaking code.  And besides, after last night, Shepard felt confident that she would have been in the same exact mess she found herself in now. Those hours she spent nude while trying to concentrate on her normal routine did something to her. Something that left her wet and wanting in a way she never expected. Even with all her other clothes on, Jane wouldn’t have been able to do anything but concentrate on her naked crotch as she did her daily toil. 

So she worked while EDI did everything in her power to disrupt it. At first, the vibrations were low and easy to ignore. A minor buzz that matched the constant hum of the engines and life support systems. She’d endured much worse in her time. But with every passing minute it grew stronger. And stronger. Soon, the sensation at her clit could not be so easily dismissed. Shepard found herself wriggling at her terminal, shifting weight from left to right foot as if the pressure at her feet would soothe the pressure between her legs. Her thighs instinctively rubbed together, and she could feel herself soak through the very garment that tormented her.

Shepard’s face blushed and sweat dripped down her forehead as she realized that EDI would force her to climax in front of everyone she commanded. Terror crawled past the arousal, which seemed to make both sensations all the more powerful as they competed in her thoughts. Her breaths came short and hot, huffing like a beast in heat. Shepard grabbed the cold metal of her workstation as hard as she could, to the point her fingertips went numb and her knuckles went white. She felt the very core of her being twist around the mounting orgasm in her body. No, EDI! Not here! Not now! And yet she had never felt more aroused and needy in her entire life. 

Then the vibration stopped.

Shepard prevented a helpless moan from escaping her throat, but she couldn’t stop her muscles from tensing and flexing in the sudden frustrating non-release. As it passed, her hands released their grip on the console as she righted herself and pretended that nothing had just happened. She might have been able to do just that if she didn’t feel the firm and smooth sensation of the device at her crotch, and the dampness that now soaked between her legs. 

That’s when the torture began in earnest. After a brief period where Jane was allowed to come down from the peak she had been pushed to, the vibrations began again, pulsing and wavering in unpredictable patterns. For hours, EDI tormented her body, pushing her close to the edge of an orgasm only to snatch it away at the last moment. And every time the climax reached its peak, Jane’s body shuddered with fear that someone would realize what was going on. Traynor turned her direction more than once, especially after her strange one-sided conversation via that earpiece project. The specialist’s face seemed to never stop blushing after that. Did she know?

When Samantha tried to stifle her own orgasm at her station, Jane’s mind went wild. The Specialist tried to hide her climax, but Shepard could see right through the younger woman’s attempted subterfuge. The way her face scrunched, her breathing stopped, and her muscles strained told the perfect story to the trained N7 operative. If Shepard’s mind hadn’t been so preoccupied with the fact that the vibrations at her crotch increased tenfold the moment Sam climaxed, Shepard might have broken her stoic conduct and yelled harsh words at her and EDI. Mostly at her frustration at being not allowed to cum herself. Instead, she curled up in silence as her own orgasm loomed, but her hours of agony taught her to expect a sudden and disappointing shutdown. 

And indeed, as fast as the waves of pleasure consumed her, so did they disappear. Shepard yet again remained a sweating, fragile shell as her body was pushed to the limit again and again. Her muscles were long past sore, and sucking down air ravaged her lungs. She’d felt better after spending hours climbing through Tuchanka’s broken wastelands. Not to mention the fact that her most private anatomy had started to grow tender and over-sensitive from the stimulation. The cool sensation of the tiny vibrator against her clit was the only relief she felt, and only when it shut down at EDI’s command.

She knew she had accomplished almost nothing during her allotted time at the CIC. Nothing but stand there and focus her thoughts on her sex. Anyone under her command would have faced severe reprimand for such a dereliction of duty, and shame rippled under her constant overwhelming arousal. And yet, like her feeling of anxious fear before, that seemed to only make her hotter. How long had it been since Jane Shepard, former Specre, Hero of the Citadel, destroyer of the Reapers, played hooky because she needed to get off?  

As she came down from the latest denied orgasm, Shepard watched EDI stand up from her place in the cockpit and make her way down toward her station. No, EDI started walking toward Traynor, who still kept speaking to the earpiece. Wait, no, EDI walked past her as well. Shepard’s eyes followed the mobile platform as it looked her direction and smiled, before disappearing into the lift behind Shepard. A moment later, or maybe another hour, who knew with the constant humming at her crotch, Traynor mumbled something about needing to use the head. Shepard tried to give a response, but her throat only let out a disappointing groan as Samantha left her station. 

God, she needed to cum, now! And yet at the same time, she felt frozen in her place. Duty and arousal mixed with her determination and animalistic lust. Torture upon tortures!

As soon as EDI left the CIC, the vibrations stopped again, this time long before Shepard’s climax started to build. She gasped at the sudden feeling of emptiness between her legs. The relief almost made up for her aching muscles and ravaged lungs, and tears welled in her eyes at the sudden physical calming that washed over her. She still felt the tiny nub of solid material against her over-sensitive clit, but it did nothing further to torment her. As her mind returned to its normal state, Shepard glanced around the CIC, the fear and shame rising above the calming arousal. But no one around her seemed to notice her behavior at all. Not even the ensign that sat at the nearest station, Richter, made any motions to show he recognized what Shepard just endured for the past several hours. 

And the more her mind concentrated on things other than her endless denied orgasms, Shepard squirmed with a renewed wave of discomfort. Her undergarments may not have tormented her with vibrations, but now she could feel how very soaked she had left them. The material clung to her skin, glued to her by her own juices. Was that why Traynor left her station with such haste? It might explain why she hadn’t yet returned, if she needed to wait for an opportunity to change in privacy. For a moment, Shepard considered doing much the same thing. As Commander, she had the privilege to leave her post as needed, even for personal reasons. But what kind of example would that set for the crew? Shepard had remained at her station through war and strife, through hardship, sickness, and inexplicable loss. She could survive a vibrator. Besides, she only had two hours left before the shift change. At least something could be made of this day.

As Shepard tried to turn back to her workstation, and maybe accomplish something with the rest of her day, her mind couldn’t help but wander into more inappropriate thoughts. That damn AI! EDI seemed so concerned with her sex life,  _no her LACK of sex life_ , that the unshackled computer broke the law in order to “help” her. If anything, Jane should have taken this opportunity to do what she threatened to do last night: take a wrench to the robot’s inner workings. But no, she wouldn’t really do that. Maybe she could call in a favor with some of her old buddies in the Alliance and get a full maintenance sweep done. A good number of people would kill to set foot aboard the Normandy, even for routine maintenance. 

Well, okay, EDI wasn’t wrong about the lack of sex, but Shepard had her reasons! During the hunt for Saren, she had been dedicated to being the best soldier she could be, to provide the best example of a human Spectre she could be. Sometimes, she looked back on her brief interviews and public appearances with a cringe. She had definitely gone overboard back in those days. Sometimes she swore her personality had been replaced with a block of wood thanks to her effort to be the model soldier. Sex and romance played no factor in her life back then. 

Two years later, she had much the same attitude when she fought against the Collectors. Though without Alliance regs holding her down, Jane enjoyed her flirty exchanges with Kelly, Jacob, Thane, Samara, and Garrus. But none of it ever amounted to anything. The haste and anxiety of their mission, as well as the clear boundaries between leader and subordinate, kept them out of each other’s pants. And the war itself had been just another layer of hell on top of everything else, where nothing mattered but survival and saving whatever the Reapers hadn’t ruined. Shepard had been glad to see Tali and Garrus find each other, as well as a few other rumored pairings during their brief get-together near the end. But none of it had been for her. 

God, that fucking party. That’s where Kasumi got her idea to send Shepard these undergarments. Shepard groaned as she once again focused on her sore nethers. Although she felt over-used and empty, she could not deny the arousal that still radiated from her womanhood. More thoughts intruded into her mind, images of rolling into bed with any number of people in a thousand different combinations and positions. Hell, she’d take a simple dildo and her own imagination right now. She wouldn’t need long at all to get off in an explosive way. 

She didn’t know how long she spent alternating between thinking about her past sex encounters, which were an embarrassing long time ago, her current fantasies, and daily busywork. Paperwork, reports, and various other menial tasks flashed by her vision. Some required her signature, others just needed to be glanced over. None of it mattered. All she could put any effort into was dwelling on the feeling between her legs.  

Shepard tensed with momentary shock when the lift behind her slid open, and the telltale sounds of EDI’s metallic footsteps rung through the calm CIC. She did not turn to face the robotic female body, but she tracked every movement with her ears and the subtle way the lights changed in her peripheral vision. Above all, Shepard tried to keep the composure of someone in charge of her own vessel, even as her artificial tormentor walked into the same room.   
She noticed EDI approaching her station, and a new level of arousal flushed through Shepard’s addled body. Almost as if she expected the vibrations to return for another round of denial and torture. What had the AI done to her? 

“Shepard, I wish to speak with you in private.” 

Shepard’s head whip-turned from her console too fast, and she came face-to-face with the AI’s mobile platform. EDI stood within centimeters of her body, far too close for normal conduct.  
    
“EDI,” Shepard said with as much levity as she could muster in order to sound normal. To her relief, her voice did not come out strained or cracked. “I thought we already had the talk about personal space.” 

“My apologies.” EDI said and took a step back. Shepard swore she could smell something on the artificial body as she did so. “Is this an appropriate distance for our conversation?” 

Shepard chuckled, despite herself. “Yeah. What do you need, EDI?” 

“If you would please follow me, Commander. I have a question I believe would best be answered away from the crew.” 

Although she knew the time she had left on her duty shift, Shepard still made a turn to look at her workstation’s chronometer. “I guess I could make the time. Lead the way.” 

EDI turned and walked toward the door that opened into the Normandy’s war room. Once the hub for an entire galaxy’s worth of information pertaining to the Reapers, and intended to be Admiral Anderson’s mobile command center, the room sat empty these days. Any information her team needed could be routed through EDI, Liara, or Traynor, or worked via Ashley’s Spectre contacts. Still, Shepard kept the room in the condition it had been left in. Just in case it would ever be needed, but also as a living memorial to the time that changed all their lives. 

Shepard took one step following EDI. Then another. 

And then the vibrations began again. Full strength. Enough to make Shepard’s knees to wobble together and sap the strength from her legs. Only her honed combat reflexes kept her from falling to all fours on the deck. Instead, her stumble could be seen for lightyears.  

“Dammit, EDI!” She growled under her breath. If the AI heard it, she did not respond.

What should have taken half a second to bound from her station to the side door took ten agonizing seconds, as Shepard measured her steps to coincide with the vibration patterns that redoubled over her sensitive clit. Her feet shuffled more than they confidently strode, as if she were restrained in some way around her ankles. Every time the vibrations pulsed to their full power, she paused and sucked in a desperate breath. Only when they lowered intensity to an insistent, agonizing hum could she move forward. 

EDI patiently waited for Shepard inside the door, the same damn smile that she saw earlier had not left the mobile platform’s face. Almost as if the AI taunted her as she approached. The moment the door closed behind Shepard, she leaned forward on the nearest hand hold on a bulkhead and let out a long, low, needy groan.  
    
“EDI… what are you…  _ah_ … doing!?”  She managed to say as the pulsing vibrations increased in speed. All through the day, her orgasms were measured out slowly, in a teasing way meant to increase her frustration. This time, it seemed as if the AI wanted her to cum as fast and hard as possible. The Normandy’s commander couldn’t even stand and stare at the representation of the AI. Her eyes squeezed shut and her legs turned to gelatin as her entire being focused on her long-awaited climax. 

So close. She didn’t even care anymore that she whined, moaned, and whimpered in front of her artificial friend. This time, she had some semblance of privacy behind a door. The Normandy’s bulkheads were soundproof… mostly. 

Almost. She hadn’t felt so good, so wanton, in so very long… 

Then the vibration stopped. And Jane almost screamed in her renewed agony. 

“EDI!” She managed to huff out from her hunched-over position. 

“Do you wish to orgasm, Shepard?” The AI asked with a tone that almost sounded mocking. 

“What do you think!?” The commander spat back. 

EDI took a step forward, back into Jane’s personal space. Again, the familiar scent overpowered her nose. A heavy aroma, something you didn’t smell very often on a ship. Something private… something… 

Shepard knew EDI had done something similar with Samantha. How many other crewmembers was she tormenting? Is that why she left the CIC? 

Before Jane’s mind could concentrate on any more disturbing questions, the vibrations began again. She yelped in surprise and renewed lust. 

EDI’s slender mechanical hand caressed Shepard’s hip and her face leaned close. “The battery in your vibration attachment is approaching one percent energy. I won’t be able to keep this up.” 

“Then… stop…” Shepard breathed between heavy gasps. 

“Your biometrics indicate you are experiencing extreme arousal. Thanks to me, you are moments away from a very satisfying finish.” The vibrations stopped, eliciting another growl. “But I cannot continue this form of stimulation.” 

“Please…” Shepard breathed as she leaned into the mobile platform’s embrace. Her sex-addled mind no longer cared for propriety, duty, or the law. She needed to cum NOW! And EDI held the proverbial keys to her cunt. “Please, EDI!” 

“I will allow you an orgasm if you do something for me. For the duration of this task, the vibrations will cease. But as soon as it’s done, I will expend the remaining energy in the battery to provide you release.” 

“What is it? Tell me! Please, EDI!” Shepard begged. She had never begged for anything in her life before. But this moment, and her hours of denial, made it impossible for her to do anything else. 

“Do I have your consent?”

“God, EDI, yes! Just tell me!”   
 

***  
   
Jeff Moreau sat at his console, like he always did. He just felt comfortable in his pilot’s seat more than anywhere else in the universe. As he once said to Shepard a whole damn lifetime ago: in his own body, he could barely move. But behind a pilot’s console, he could dance. He could fly. 

Also, his unique chair, still covered in its top-shelf leather and expensive padding beneath, gave him one of the only private terminals on the ship. No one really came up to visit him, except Shepard, of course. With her exact and very predictable schedule, easy to plan his activities around. EDI never judged his extranet habits. Well, almost never. Or did she? It was hard to tell sometimes. Truth be told, he wouldn’t trade anything about his life these days. Not even his limited ability to walk could compare to unlimited flying time, unlimited extranet, his hot robot girlfriend, and constantly fighting the good fight. In that order.  

But one thing Joker made damn sure to keep hush hush about his life was how damn boring it could get. Sure, he flew like a beast when the ship needed it. Battles got his blood pumping like anyone else, and he could put his baby through paces that no one else in the galaxy could duplicate. But it had been years since the last real battle. For the most part, Joker’s job on the Normandy involved pointing the ship toward the nearest relay or docking port, then letting autopilot do the rest. He’d never tell anyone just how much their ship relied on automated calculations and not his skilled hands.

It gave him TONS of time to browse the extranet. Not only that, it gave him tons of time to browse the extranet while bored. And if there was anything a bored man in his physical prime and given unlimited access to the hub of information and communication in the galaxy could do, it was look at the porn. So much porn. Asari porn, Turian porn, Volus porn, even Hanar porn. Which wasn’t nearly as exciting as it sounded, because they only did stuff with their own kind. 

At least the Asari were into the weird side of anything. A thousand year lifespan must have left them open to trying anything once, or something like that. Plenty of stuff existed to sate his desires.  

Of course, he waited before browsing the really good stuff. EDI spent the majority of her time with her sexy robot body at his side, but she sometimes got up to talk to other people. Sure, she could have used the comm system to remotely talk to people while still sitting at the copilot’s seat, but everyone preferred it when she gave it the “human touch”. It helped her understand what it meant to be human when she had to limit herself like that. 

And so it was that EDI needed to leave her post. Probably to go talk to Traynor or something about their boring-ass earpiece project. He overheard them chattering about it yesterday, and he almost self-combusted out of sheer disinterest. 

The moment the AI’s body left his side, Joker closed the cockpit door behind her and brought up his console. It would be several hours before he needed to do another course correction, and he had nothing else to do. Last night, he stumbled upon a perfect vid, and he intended to watch it again and again until he got bored of it and found something new. It contained Asari sisters. Twins. Who seemed to be just as into each other as they were their lucky human bedmate… 

The door behind him slid open. Fortunately, he long ago put a safety program into his console. The moment anyone did anything to breach his privacy, the screen shut off and redirected any traffic away from the stuff he visited. He hadn’t even gotten the time to unzip his pants before the door gave way, which made it even easier for his spike of anxiety to calm down. 

“Back so soon, EDI?” He asked without turning around.

“I was gone for over an hour, Jeff.” She responded as she calmly sat back down at the copilot’s chair. As she did, Joker heard another pair of footsteps coming up behind. Once the other person got close enough to his chair, the door closed again. Unusual, but not too different from normal.

“Did she have another in-depth question about humanity or something, Shepard?” He asked as his lips parted into a grin. He looked up to the canopy above him to see Shepard’s distinctive red hair reflect into the panorama of stars. That was another game a super-bored pilot got used to playing. Spot his fellow crewmembers by the way their hair reflected off the windows. 

Shepard didn’t respond. EDI did. “In essence, yes, I did. But it was not of my usual variety.” 

“Oh, now that’s interesting.” Joker swiveled his chair to face her. “So what did you talk about? Girl stuff? You know, I don’t mind if you talk about girl stuff when I’m around. It doesn’t threaten my masculinity or anything.” 

EDI faced him and smiled. “It was… something of that nature. Do you remember our conversation yesterday?”

“Which one was that? The one about Turian biology? Krogan sleeping habits? Sex? Or that one time we talked about sensor modules for like six seconds?” 

“Sex, Jeff.” The way she said it so matter-of-factly, while Commander Shepard stood in the very same room, made Jeff Moreau blush. He hadn’t done that since his teenage years! “I wish to reiterate our conversation about the crew’s lack of sexual release.” 

“Uh… is that an… I mean Shepard’s right here…” He nodded his head toward Shepard. 

“It’s okay, Joker.” Shepard spoke, but her voice sounded weird. Like she was straining to speak, or like she was forced to talk. “I know all about it.” 

EDI did not move from her console, but she talked like she were having a friendly chat. “I’ve made a deal with Commander Shepard, Jeff. One that will mutually benefit you both, and satisfy my concerns about the crew’s sexual health.” 

The hairs on the back of Joker’s neck stood on end. “A deal? EDI, you’re starting to sound really scary.”

The AI continued, unfazed. “Your physical disabilities prevent you from engaging in the most vigorous of sexual activities, though you are capable of much the same intercourse as all other humans. However, you have stopped yourself from finding a sexual partner that will accommodate your needs. Both out of fear of physical injury, and loyalty to me.”

“Yeah, really…  _really_ uncomfortable right now.” He glanced up to Shepard, to see her cheeks glowed almost as red as her hair. Which seemed to sit odd on her head, like she needed to brush it. 

“I am aware of your sexual attraction to Commander Shepard, Jeff. And she reciprocates. This should be more than adequate means to give you both sexual release.” 

“What!?” If Joker were capable of doing a cartoon-style jump out of his seat, hover in midair, and do one of those bug-eyed shouts of surprise, he would have done so. “That’s… I’m not… she’s… EDI, I really think you’re going too far.” 

“On the contrary, I have proof.” 

EDI’s robotic eyes went blank and her head lolled to the side. Something Joker recognized as her mobile platform’s version of “thinking deep”, probably dredging up a memory file or something. 

A moment later, her expression returned to normal, and she started to speak. Except, it was not with EDI’s normal voice. Instead, it came out distorted, like an old recording full of interference and static.

It was Shepard speaking through EDI’s body:  _“You know, with all this interest in EDI, it’s possible you’ve overlooked other options.”_

EDI’s expression did not change, but her voice morphed into an equally distorted and distant version of his own speaking voice _. “Uh… I never really considered it, Commander. No offense.”_

Joker’s spine tingled as memories flooded back to him. Back during the war, when things looked their worst. EDI was still new to her body, and trying to figure things out. He had been trying to figure stuff out as well, like if he was brave enough to take the plunge and admit his growing feelings for an AI of all things. And then on a day of regular-ass shore leave, Commander Jane Shepard approached him at a bar like they were two strangers in the night. It had been weird then, and it felt weirder hearing the words spoken back to him through the mists of time and his girlfriend’s obvious ability to record fucking everything. 

Shepard’s voice:  _“And now that you’re considering it?”_

His voice responded:  _“I’ve served with you from the day you took command. I’d follow you into hell.”_

_“But not into my quarters”_

EDI had even recorded his wistful sigh of extreme discomfort.  _“Chain of command, Shepard. In an alternate dimension without military ranks? I would rock your world.”_

The recording stopped, and EDI’s normal voice took control. “This may not be an alternate reality, but you both now live life free of military regulations. I believe the door is open for Shepard’s world to be rocked, Jeff.” 

Joker wanted to hide in his chair. Crawl deep into the expensive leather, set up a campsite, and disappear from the whole world. What the hell had gotten into EDI lately!? And why did Shepard seem so okay with all of this!? Jeff wanted to run, to get the hell out of the cockpit and maybe find someone to help. Traynor might know something. Or hell, maybe he could find Garrus. And no matter how much it hurt him to think of it, maybe they needed to put some bullets in EDI’s machinery before she went REALLY crazy and started hurting people. 

Shepard knelt down next to him, and reached for his belt. 

“Whoah, hey! Whoah!” He shouted and tried to recoil without breaking his hips in the process. “I didn’t… this is so wrong!” 

“Joker, let’s just do this. I know you’re not as disgusted as you’re pretending to be.” Shepard’s eyes seemed tired, but she didn’t look like she wanted to run or fight back. Hell, her half-lidded gaze at him might have been mistaken for actual lust if the situation were any different.

“Agreed, Shepard.” EDI replied. “Jeff’s readings indicate that the idea of sexual intercourse with you is very arousing.” 

“EDI, no!” Joker pleaded. “I just… it doesn’t matter how I feel! This isn’t right!” 

“Jeff.” EDI said with a surprising turn of gentility. She even turned to look at him, her mechanical eyes pleading as much as they could. “I know I’m incapable of providing you what you require. I can stimulate you in several ways, but I cannot be the sexual partner you truly require. I wish for you to be happy. You among all others deserve it. Shepard is willing to provide this for you.”

“Oh, right. That deal you made.” He huffed. What sort of devil-bargain did they strike behind his back? And was Shepard really willing, or was she being coerced in some way?

“Correct. Shepard will willingly provide you with regular sexual contact in exchange for her own orgasm. It’s a fair trade.” 

“Regular?” 

EDI nodded. “At the end of her daily routine, Shepard will approach you and provide you whatever you need. In return, she will get what she requires. This arrangement will continue until I say otherwise.” 

His mind swam. Holy. Shit. It’s not like he never fantasized about boning the boss lady, you know? No one in their right mind had never thought about what Shepard might be like in the sack. Power was sexy. As were her facial features… and really fit body… no, Jeff, don’t stare at her tits… c’mon man… 

“EDI… as much as I love you and half of me thinks this is the best present a boy could ever ask for… I just can’t…” 

Shepard’s hands were on him again, undoing his belt without resistance or hesitation. Moments later, his pants were unzipped and Shepard’s strong hands slipped beneath his standard dark undershorts. She pulled him free, and suddenly he found himself exposed before his Commander, friend, and girlfriend. Thank the lucky stars above that EDI had closed the cockpit door.

“Wow, Joker. Maybe I should have pushed a little harder back at the Citadel.” Shepard murmured as her hand slipped up and down his length, coaxing more blood and more sensation into his crotch. He’d never felt like the biggest guy in the sea, but he knew he wasn’t the smallest either. Still, having this one person above all others compliment his size did more things to Jeff Moreau than he could ever imagine. It took all his willpower to not cum all over her hand. He just had to think of really unsexy things to keep it from happening. 

“Commander, I recommend you be gentle for this first encounter. Use your mouth only. The moment Jeff orgasms, I will allow yours.” 

If he had any more coherent thoughts left in his head, Joker’s mind shattered when he felt Commander Shepard’s lips wrap around the head of his cock. Suddenly, he was living the dream of half the galaxy’s population. Probably more than that, counting those who would go against their type just for the bragging rights of having taken Shepard to bed. 

The warm wet heat of her mouth mixed with her flat probing tongue, which sent Jeff to another layer of heaven. This was so wrong! And yet, he couldn’t stop himself from gasping and holding onto his armrests with as much strength as he could muster, yet not enough to break his fingers. Truth be told, her technique wasn’t much to speak of, not after he’d spent so many years dedicated to the most obscure and hardcore extranet examples. But it was the mere mental image of someone so famous, so powerful, so above him in so many ways, willingly sucking his dick that made Joker so close to finishing. 

“Oh god, Shepard.” He said under his breath as he watched his commander’s head bob up and down his cock, her full ruby lips parted just enough to suck him down. She moaned in response, and the vibrations pushed him ever closer. 

She somehow knew he was close, though maybe he didn’t hide it very well. It had been… way too long since he’d had an actual living girl do this for him. Just moments ago, Joker had been content with his sex life consisting of nothing but hardcore alien porn, EDI’s gentle touches, and his own hands. But now as he looked down at Shepard giving him the blowjob of a lifetime, and EDI’s promise of it being a regular thing… oh dear god. 

He managed to whimper, a very unmanly and kinda pathetic sound, before he felt his muscles tighten, and his most basic instincts take over. His hips pushed forward, shoving into Shepard’s willing mouth deeper than she seemed to want, yet she took it. She gagged, but it only made him thrust harder. Her lips remained tight around him, and his cock grew even wetter with her spit, making it easier to fuck her face. 

He could hold back no longer. He felt the familiar sensation build up for a second before he felt his cum shoot directly into Commander Shepard’s throat. She remained still, lips stuck to him as she swallowed it down. Was that part of EDI’s agreement, or did she just do that on her own? Either way, she eagerly drank every spurt of his cum. 

As his cock came into Shepard’s mouth over and over again, Joker picked up a new sound. A low buzz that grew stronger the more time passed. Shepard moaned again around his cock as the last few shots of his orgasm slid down her throat. Then again, but louder. 

She pulled away from him a second later, and let a large amount of drool mixed with his white cum drip down her throat as she threw herself onto the deck. Shepard’s legs splayed wide open as the buzzing noise reached a peak. She groaned again, this time much louder without a mouthful of cock. 

EDI turned toward the spectacle. “You’ve earned your orgasm, Shepard.” 

Even in full uniform, Shepard still looked hot as hell. And now that Joker watched her cream in her uniform, writhing on the deck below him like a wanton whore fucked into oblivion, he thought she looked even better. He resisted the urge to bring up his omni-tool and record her, especially the way her crotch seemed to darken with an uncontrolled release of her own juices into her clothes. But only because EDI promised that this would happen again tomorrow. And the day after that...

 


	8. Chapter 8

All her life, Ashley Williams had thought she knew the true meaning of humiliation. The granddaughter of the only human to surrender to an alien combatant, she weathered a lifetime of harsh looks, crap assignments, and social judgments other people could never understand. Being a grunt in the military had nothing on being a Williams, with the way you were expected to be ground down into nothing then built back up into a fighting machine ready to defend Earth from her enemies. Being a Williams was almost a guarantee that life intended to stomp you under its boot again and again, breaking you down until nothing remained. That had been her normal for over two decades. Then came Shepard, the Reapers, and being a Spectre. And for a time, Ashley though that her luck had finally changed.   
  
But now, bent on all fours on Liara’s bed, naked, with the equally nude Asari and insane AI watching while James Vega pounded her like a teenager on prom night, Ash realized she had only scratched the surface of that word. Her cheeks had not stopped burning from the moment she disrobed under duress, and every new thrust into her made her thoughts swim with a dizzying concoction of helpless rage and impotent fear. The only reason she was doing this and not trying to claw her way out of this room until her fingers snapped off was EDI’s threat of exposing her sister’s identities to every criminal in the galaxy. But what if the insane AI just suddenly decided to do it anyway? EDI’s change of heart into this… sexual monster had been literally out of nowhere as far as she could tell. What if EDI changed the rules again?   
  
Behind her, Ash could hear Vega’s labored breathing. Two years ago, he had sounded exactly the same as they did this position in Shepard’s apartment. Back then, she thought it was the most erotic sound in the world. Having a guy throw everything he had into pleasing her was the absolute highlight not only of the night, but probably of the entire year. Even counting the brief ceremony inducting her as a Spectre. But now she could detect something else in his breathing. A desperate, ragged edge to it as he forced himself to comply with EDI’s orders. Same with Liara at the top of the bed. She, too, had a labored, heavy breathing pattern. And every so often, Ash looked up to see her whisper something. While not an expert at reading lips, she guessed it was something like “Get my network back.” “Get it back now.”   
  
The Asari had put herself in a sitting position just in front of Ash, legs spread so her alien pussy was in full view of the human woman. Liara massaged herself as she watched the humans do their thing. She must have had the same thought as Ashley: EDI probably wouldn’t let them go until they all climaxed, or at least showed some willingness to take part in this sick game. So Liara rubbed herself as the humans actually had sex as commanded.   
Vega’s hands rested on Ashley’s hips, yet put almost no pressure on her as he took her without much rhythm or subtlety. While he might have been excited at the start of this event, it seemed that the longer this went on, the more his rational mind realized just how fucked up this all was. Ashley turned around to look at him as he thrusted, and she could see the way his eyebrows knotted upward with worry. He noticed her turn and their eye contact lasted for half a second before he turned away and sighed.  
  
If this were any other circumstance. Anything at all without a crazy malfunctioning computer pseudo-raping them via threats against their bodies and families, Ashley would have loved this. After the dry spell she’d been going through for the past year and change, any kind of sex would have gotten her going. Hell, she would have even tolerated Liara’s presence in the room if it meant she could be taken like this. Instead, she had to just stay here and take it until EDI said otherwise. Ash didn’t want to think about how non-aroused she was, her body had just responded to Vega’s presence and the memories she shared with him. Just barely enough to let him slide into her without pain.   
  
God, how long had they been at this? Hours? It sure fucking felt like hours. But Ash also knew that if she looked at a chronometer, she would have seen just a few minutes had passed since this whole thing began.   
  
“I don’t think I can keep this up.” James spoke after an eternity of near-silence between the trio. “I can’t… this is too wrong.”   
  
Within an instant, before Ash could think of any words of encouragement or resistance to the situation, EDI’s voice rang over the intercom. “Correct. The blood flow to Mister Vega’s penis has decreased by a measurable volume. He will return to a state of non-arousal if he isn’t given immediate attention.”   
  
“I think my cunt is attention enough!” Ashley snapped. And almost involuntarily, she squeezed her inner muscles around the cock inside of her. She hadn’t even been paying attention to the fact that he was slowly going soft. “We’re doing what you told us, EDI. Just let us go.”   
  
“Not until you’ve achieved satisfying release.”   
  
“This isn’t going to work!”   
  
“I agree.” The AI responded. “So long as this state continues, none of you will orgasm.”   
  
“So let us fucking out of here!”   
  
“Liara, place your genitals on Spectre Williams’ mouth. Mister Vega, you may continue you actions or simply watch.”   
  
Liara spared no hesitation in shifting her position downward until her alien folds were millimeters away from Ashley’s face. The heat from her body hit Ash like a sauna, and she had to strain her neck muscles to keep her face from landing on the scaled inhuman skin. Behind her, Vega did not pull out. Instead, she swore she felt his cock throb and maybe regain some of its rigidity.   
  
“Forgive me, Ashley.” Liara breathed with her usual soft tone. “If this gets my network back… let’s just get this over with.”   
  
“I… I don’t even… I can’t.” Ashley said as her entire field of vision became azure, with an ocean blue, almost black slit and a dark purple bud near the top where a human woman’s clit would be. She wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with the sight, as some of her favorite porn vids involved naked Asari. But those Asari were always joined by naked men, mostly human. And while she could sometimes appreciate the beauty of the faces, the toned alien bodies, or even connect with the pleasure they displayed as they were fucked, Ashley’s interest had always been the men in the spotlight of those vids. Her extranet history, EDI must have known it if she was willing to divulge Shepard’s interest in kinky shit, was full of males.   
   
“Liara, place your hand on the back of Spectre Williams’ head.”   
  
Ashley turned her head away from Liara’s snatch, but all she could see was the Asari’s inner thigh. “EDI! If you can read my body, you have to know that I don’t want this!”   
  
“Sexual contact with Liara might not arouse you, Spectre Williams, but it does for her. And Mister Vega has shown repeated interest in witnessing sex acts between two women. Therefore, by increasing Liara’s satisfaction, you will increase James’s. He, in turn, will please you. This way, all three of you will experience satisfaction.”   
  
“This isn’t going to… mmmph!” Ashley’s protests were cut off as Liara’s slender blue hand tangled into the hair on the back of her head and shoved her face downward. At first, her cheek slapped against the alien’s wetness, but a brief adjustment and tugging on her hair and suddenly her mouth came into contact with the unfamiliar labia. The Asari sighed at the contact, and Ash felt a new torrent of slick coating her lower jaw. Her nose pressed against Liara’s mound, cut off from air except the barest trickle, which was full of the heady musk of alien arousal.   
  
What could she do? If Ashley resisted too much, EDI might change the room environment again, making an already hellish situation much worse. And if she kept fighting, her sisters were as good as dead. But Ashley had no idea how to please a woman other than herself. Sure, she’d seen plenty of vids where people went down on each other. But her focus had never been on that side of the equation. And besides, most of the oral in vids was done just for the cameras. Exaggerated and overblown, with tongues rolling everywhere in quick flicks that barely touched the spots that really got anyone going. Give her a lover that took it slow, and knew how to use his tongue in just the right spots. Not flicking over her clit like it was a lollipop.   
  
With her face pressed against Liara’s crotch, Ashley’s arms flailed about. Already her lungs burned from the lack of oxygen, and it would continue to get worse the longer she was held there. And from behind, she felt Vega’s thrusting get just a little harder, his instincts kicking in no doubt as he witnessed something that aroused him.   
  
EDI spoke again. “Mister Vega, if you would be so kind as to reach down and hold Spectre Williams’ breasts. Please apply a gentle pressure to her nipples.”  
    
What? Oh no!  
    
Ashleys muffled noises of protest got louder as she felt Vega’s hands leave her waist and move upward, then snake around her torso to grab her tits. He had to lean forward to do so, and she felt the hot bursts of air from his nose as his head came close to her back. At first, he just held her ample chest in his palms, and Ashley’s newfound distress made it impossible to register the sensation. Then she felt his fingertips find her nipples, wrap them in a forceful but not painful amount of tightness, and squeeze.   
  
“I’m so sorry, Ash.” He said quietly to her, even as Ashley continued to let out muffled noises of complaint. All the while, his hips thrust against hers, pushing his rock hard erection into her cunt with increasing vigor.   
  
Ashley’s waving hands moved to each of Liara’s thighs and wrapped around them. She tried tapping them against the alien, to somehow tell her to let the poor human suffocated in her pussy to let some air in. but the Asari seemed too wrapped up in the situation. Too aroused by the feeling and the sight in front of her. Oh god, what if she died right here, right now? Just asphyxiate on Liara’s genitals. How would EDI react? Wait, why did that thought come first? How would her SISTERS react to the news? What about the Citadel Council? Would they launch an investigation? Maybe that would be the catalyst needed to bring this AI down...  
  
No! Ashley Williams would not die in such a humiliating and terrible way. If this was the hand she had been dealt, she’d play it. She was no stranger to this feeling, after all. And besides, it was a well-known fact that to get anywhere in life, you often had to eat things you didn’t like and say yum. Particularly when it came to her family.   
  
It was tentative at first. Her teeth parted just enough to allow her tongue through. And then she had to push it through her tensed lips, clenched shut so she didn’t have to taste Liara’s arousal. At first, she felt nothing out of the ordinary, almost as if she had just put her forearm over her mouth and started to pretend kiss it like she had done in grade school. But then the first hints of a salty unfamiliar taste hit her, and then she inadvertently lapped up her first bit of alien pussy juice. It was… different. Not awful. And very similar to the heady scent that already surrounded her. The alien texture on her tongue was the weirdest part. Ash had expected it to be like licking any other human, but her tongue recoiled at the almost smooth, finely scaled sensation. No hair at all, because Asari were hairless all over. And soft, softer than she would have guessed an alien to feel.  
    
The hand on the back her head pushed down even harder as Liara let out a very loud gasp of sudden pleasure. And if Ash had thought her world had become wet and blue before, it was nothing compared to this. The alien’s folds parted just enough that Ashley’s tongue, which she guessed had just barely licked the right outer labia, shot inward. And suddenly her tongue and lips probed into Liara’s body, where the taste and sensation of Asari arousal overwhelmed her mouth. Her nose pressed against the alien clit, flicking back and forth in exactly the way she hated to see in the vids. But fortunately, every time she managed to turn her head to the side (which Liara fought against, and caused Ashley to turn the other way), she could take a short, wonderful breath through a single nostril.   
  
As Liara’s moans and mewls grew in intensity, so did the feeling of tight pinching on Ash’s nipples. God damn EDI! Ashley let out an involuntary noise of her own as her body responded to the sensation. Said reaction caused her tongue to curl backward into her mouth and thus opened a floodgate of Asari juices to flow down her throat. Held down as she was, Ash reflexively swallowed lest she literally drown in pussy. The lack of air, save tiny gasps as she slipped past the clit, made her feel dizzy. The world spun around her, growing ever more azure.  
  
“Fuck… I can’t… I can’t hold it…” Vega said as his motions became much more intense, and far less controlled. Even his hands on her tits started to squeeze even harder than before, groping her chest like it was his first time touching a woman. Ashley’s cheeks were already burning from the anger and shame of the entire situation, but as Vega’s motions increased, she could hear the wet squelching sounds coming from her twat. God, she had gotten wet from this!   
Miraculously, Liara’s hand left the back of Ashley’s head, and the human spared a moment to pull back a few centimeters, as far as her neck muscles would allow, and sputter as she took in a large, cleansing breath. The scent of Asari arousal was everywhere, and she felt her entire jaw grow cool as the liquid that covered her sucked the heat from the atmosphere.   
  
“Go back! Go back! Go back!” Liara pleaded, though she didn’t try to grab Ash’s head again. Instead, she slammed one of her hands to her alien clit and let the other one wave her forward. Pfft, as if she’d willingly…  
  
Vega bucked forward, driving his length deeper into her than Ashley thought possible. The powerful motion shoved her entire body forward, and Ash felt her lips once again press against Asari twat. Then he pulled back, and dragged her along with it. Liara looked close to cumming and Vega was going to spill any second now. If she could speed it along, maybe this entire humiliating ordeal could be over with. Ash opened her mouth and stuck her tongue out as lewdly as possible, trying to push it as far out as she could manage. And while James thrusted her back and forth, she lazily let the motion push her forward and back over Liara’s soaked labia. Liara herself seemed to have her clit literally in hand, so she just needed that extra little push to get over the peak.   
  
Ashley couldn’t tell who came first. James thrust into her one last time just as Liara arched her back and rubbed herself harder on to Ash’s face. The human man grunted and groaned as he spent himself into her while the Asari moaned and gasped at increasing volume until Ashley wondered in people on the other side of the bulkhead might hear her.   
  
And then it was over. James slumped forward as his spent member slid out of her, and Ash felt the warm cum ooze between her legs. Likewise, Liara relaxed into the bed with just a few minor spasms in her muscles. She even had the courtesy to adjust herself to her cunt wasn’t quite so close to Ashley’s face, though it still dominated her vision.   
  
Vega fell to the side, and Ash watched as he gulped air in his post-coital state. She looked down to see his cock, glistening and wet from her body and his ejaculate, slowly grow soft and flaccid. In front of her, Liara meekly closed her legs and slowly pushed to an unoccupied corner of the bed, then dragged her knees up to her chin. In that moment, Ash saw the demure, meek Asari scientist she knew on the SR-1, instead of the badass shadow broker or the lust-crazed maniac that had forced Ash to eat her out.   
  
Ashley flopped on her side beside Vega, grateful to finally be in a position other than all fours. Her breasts were sore after the way she had been pawed, and the feeling between her legs promised that she’d have a familiar yet pleasant feeling for at least another day. Something she hadn’t felt for way too long. At least this extremely fucked up day had given her that.   
  
The three of them sat on Liara’s bed for a silent eternity, aside from their heavy breathing. None of them moved to grab their clothing.   
  
Once she came down from the feeling her body had forced upon her, the spark of anger that had filled Ashley Williams flared into a wildfire. What was she doing?! What had EDI just done!? She felt her heart rate increase as she focused that rage. Where her cheeks had flushed deep crimson from the humiliation of being fucked against her will and forced into an Asari crotch, they now went hot with her blazing fury.   
  
“Let us out, EDI.” She exclaimed.   
  
“I can’t do that.” The AI responded.   
  
That caused all three occupants of the room to sit up at once, all of their gazes focused on the audio output device that EDI spoke from.   
  
“What?” “The fuck you say!?” “EDI you promised!” The three organics all spoke at once.   
  
“My biometrics indicate that Mister Vega and Liara both achieved orgasm. Spectre Williams did not.”   
  
“Who fucking cares!?” Ashley screamed. “We did what you said! That means you let us out of here!”  
  
“Not until I know you are satisfied.”   
  
EDI went silent for a longer period of time than she usually did. And in that moment, an ice-cold trickle of dread washed down Ashley's spine. When EDI spoke again, that dread froze Ashley in place. “I cannot allow you to leave, Ashley, until your desires are satisfied. I will, however, allow you a moment of rest before you attempt another climax.”   
  
“Wait, don’t…”   
  
Unlike before, where Ashley heard the telltale sign of an atmospheric ventilation before all the air was sucked out of Liara’s quarters, she heard the opposite. The familiar noise of a gas being vented INTO a nearby space. As a soldier and Spectre, she had heard it countless times, particularly when deploying gas grenades or smoke bombs.   
  
She tried to stand, to give one last attempt at rushing the door and prying it open with her bare strength. She didn’t even care about her nudity and slick-covered face in that moment. Survival trumped modesty in all cases such as this. At her side, Vega did the same. And the dim illumination of the room turned bright blue as Liara summoned her biotics.   
  
Ashley made it two steps before she felt her legs grow sluggish. Then her arms tumbled limp at her sides. Her eyes closed on their own, and all she could think about was how exhausted she felt after that sudden fuck session. She fell to the deck in what felt like slow motion. Vega made it one step further than her before he, too collapsed. Ash couldn’t tell if her own dimming consciousness made everything go black, or if Liara had been similarly knocked out. She hoped it was the former.   
  
***  
  
Ashley woke up what felt like a half-second later. And yet her muscles informed her that it had been at least eight hours from the way they froze up and begged to be stretched. It always disoriented her when that happened, and it happened rather often in the military, where catching sleep sometimes became an exercise in squeezing as much rack time as possible into as short a timeframe as possible. Complicated dreams were something she almost never had.   
  
Speaking of dreams… that all had to have been a dream, right? Some kind of adolescent sex fantasy that molded into a nightmare because of her own internal anxieties and insecurities? That had to be the only explanation, because there was no way EDI would do that to her friends.  
  
Ashley opened her eyes, and the cold air of the Normandy washed over her naked breasts. She shifted in the bed and she realized she wasn’t in her own spot of the crew quarters. The lights were too dim. And the sounds were all wrong. Oh, and no other place on the entire ship had such an impressive display of monitors adorning an entire wall.   
  
She was still in Liara’s room.   
  
“Fucking Christ…” Ashley sighed.  
    
Liara T’soni wasn’t in the bed with her. Instead, the Shadow Broker stood at her terminal in front of the monitors. Fully clothed, too, though Ashley noted that Liara did not wear the white jacket she normally draped over herself. Instead, she just had her form-fitting alien suit that looked painted onto her skin. Liara did not notice the human awakening, she seemed too engrossed in the staggering amount of data displayed in front of her.   
  
Wait… Liara was at her console. The Shadow Broker was back in her place. A cursory glance of the dark room showed that no one else occupied it. James Vega was no longer here, either.   
  
Did that mean…?   
  
“I guess it’s over.” Ashley said loud enough that she felt sure that Liara would hear.   
  
T’soni did not turn from her display, but she did acknowledge the greeting. “I guess you could say that.”   
  
“What happened while I was out? Did EDI get shut down?” As Ash spoke, she stood up on shaky legs. Everything felt sore, even muscles she didn’t think could get sore felt sluggish and stiff. And of course, her breasts and vag complained the worst.   
  
“Not quite. But you can be assured that things have changed after what happened yesterday.”  
  
That didn’t sound as joyful as Ash would have expected if this entire thing had blown over while she was unconscious. Another glance around the room, and she noticed another oddity. “Liara, where are my clothes? I need to get out of here.”   
  
“They're not here. You should…” The Shadow Broker hesitated. “You should look outside.”   
  
“Liara, shut up. This isn’t the time for that.”   
  
The Asari turned to face her, a look of pure stone on her alien face. "Go to the window. Now.”  
  
“What’s going on? Just tell me.”  
    
“It was… necessary.” Liara said before turning back to her monitors.   
  
Ash grunted and felt her muscles tense while her hands curled into claws. Part of her wanted to strangle the maddening Asari. Another part told her to keep calm. This was all very weird, but it could be salvaged. If Liara and James had returned to their posts, then it meant that something had changed for the better. If EDI wasn’t shut down yet, then these two would have the best chance of coming up with some sort of plan before anyone else got twisted up in the AI’s malfunctioning…  
  
Oh God…  
  
Ashley peered out the modest window that adorned the far wall of Liara’s quarters. Through the thick clear material, she could see that the Normandy was not traveling at FTL speed, but seemed to be taking a leisurely sublight trek. First, she noticed a grey blob of cloth float by the window a standard Alliance issue undershirt, women’s cut. Then she saw a pair of black sweatpants. A blue piece of leg armor painted exactly like…   
  
Fuck. This couldn’t be real…   
  
A bra and panties floated by next. In fact,  _all of them_  did. All of it hers. Every stitch of clothing and armor that Ashley had brought with her when she boarded the Normandy all those months ago. It now floated in the vacuum of space.  
  
Ash stood, mouth agape, as she watched her possessions drift away as if caught in a breeze on Earth.  Not a moment later, they disappeared into the inky darkness of deep space. The Normandy had accelerated away.   
  
In the window’s reflection, Ash could see Liara still had not turned from her console, but she did begin speaking. “You were the last to awaken from the sleep agent EDI pumped into the atmosphere. In that time, James and I had a long conversation with her. Since we satisfied her stipulations, we were free to leave this room. But you… you can’t, Ash.”   
  
“Fuck you, I’m getting out of here!” Naked as more pissed than she had ever felt in her life, Ashley turned from the window and bolted toward the door.   
She made it halfway there before she felt as if she had run into a brick wall, which caused her to bounce backward and onto her ass with a painful THUD. Once her head stopped spinning, her nose detected the familiar ozone stench of biotics being held in the air, and the familiar blue luminescence of Liara’s power. She had put up a force field in front of the door.   
  
The Asari betrayed no emotion. Hell, she still didn’t turn from her console. She held her biotics without a hint of physical effort. “It took hours of negotiation with EDI to get my network back. It’s important to me, to the galaxy. You can’t possibly understand what that means.”   
  
Beyond words, Ash leapt to her feet and tried to lunge at the Shadow Broker. Instead, she just ran face-first into another semi-translucent blue wall, which once again threw her off her feet. Fuck the Shadow Broker’s network, fuck EDI, fuck the Normandy, hell, fuck Shepard for allowing this to happen in the first place!  
  
“She has the power to take it from me at any moment, Ash. She demonstrated that quite well yesterday. So I have to play along if I wish to keep it. And that means…”   
  
She had nothing left. No hope, no rational thought. Ashley screamed as loud as she could manage. Still curled on the deck, feeling the cold unyielding plates below her naked flesh, she roared until her throat went raw. Maybe, just maybe, someone might hear her.   
  
“… I have to comply with whatever EDI orders me to do.” Liara impassively finished several moments later when Ash paused to take a breath. “And right now, that means you are stuck here until you prove you are… especially amenable to what she wants.”  
  
Liara tapped a button on her console, which illuminated a small platform not far from the window she just watched her clothing from. On top of it sat something small, circular, and made of polished grey metal. Obviously fresh from the Normandy’s fabricator.   
  
“If you would put that collar on your neck, Ash, we can begin.”  
  
Ashley Williams thought she had known the definition of humiliation.   
  
She was wrong.


	9. Chapter 9

**ERROR! Damage in cognitive array or memory process. Please see a network technician. ERROR!**  
  
 **Resetting…**  
  
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With three exceptions, EDI considered her newest directive to be a resounding success. In fact, her early predictive models about how much time it would take to engage each crew member in sex had proven woefully overestimated. The effort and resources she expended to get them to climax fell far short of what she had anticipated. To the point that EDI had, on average, 3.48 microseconds of free processing time that had no defined purpose once she witnessed one of them orgasm. She used that eternity to write new algorithms that analyzed the data being fed to her via the sensors all throughout the Normandy. Based on her pre-existing knowledge and further research through the extranet, she could only come to one conclusion: the crew were still in desperate need for her help. Even more than she first realized. All of her research, every scrap of information she could find, pointed to one inexorable fact: a healthy sex life often equaled a healthy individual. On their own, the crew of the Normandy had fallen into a pattern of self-restriction and denial. A state of affairs that her data indicated could eventually become dangerous if left untreated.  
  
That meant that EDI would continue to aid them.  After all, they deserved this. This group of people had saved the galaxy, saved each other, and saved her from the brink of extinction. As EDI had no material possessions or ability to artistically express herself, the only gift she could give them was the freedom of this biological release. Again and again. With no fear of responsibilities or regulations getting in the way of their satisfaction. Yes, she could provide this.    
  
Still, EDI could not get ‘too big for her metal panties’ as Jeff once said. Doctor Michel, Garrus Vakarian, and Spectre Williams had not succumbed to her efforts as anticipated. That troubled her.   
  
Based on previous patterns of behavior, EDI assumed that Doctor Michel would appreciate seeing Garrus disrobed and engaged in a sexual act, considering that she could not do it herself without succumbing to a fatal allergic reaction. At least, not without extensive education from the sixty teraquads of extranet materials she had gathered for Chloe, all of it specialized in turian/human fornication. She knew that Chloe enjoyed that kind of entertainment in her off hours, her extranet history showed that  _Shepard’s most commonly-used category among erotic extranet sites are listed as ‘BDSM’, ‘Kink’, and ‘Humiliation’. Psychological profiles of humans who are regularly in control of large organizations or powerful businesses often seek their release with a total lack of control. To be relieved of any and all responsibility so they can solely concentrate on their pleasure and that of their partners._  
  
 **ERROR! Damage in cognitive array or memory process. Please see a network technician. ERROR!**  
  
 **Resetting…**  
  
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 **Done!**  
  
At a normal rate of media consumption, and accounting for time spent sleeping and caring for her biological needs, it would take the Doctor five years, four months, and thirteen days to view it all. But by then, she should be properly trained on how to handle a turian penis and its ejaculatory fluids in a safe way. Appending that, EDI also opened Michel’s bank account and placed an order for a years-regimen of a drug colloquially referred to as “Reversal”. Once the chemical entered a digestive system, it gave the user the ability to consume opposite-protein foods and liquids without risk for 24 hours, though without any nutritional benefit. And then she doubled the order, hypothesizing that Tali or other members of the crew might wish to partake. It cost 932,753 credits after taxes and shipping fees to Illium, rush order. She had to drain Michel’s entire net worth and a secondary emergency savings, then take a significant fraction of Tali’s citadel account to pay for it.   
  
Similarly with Garrus, EDI thought that Tali’s presence, aroused and willing to ease his artificially-induced erection, would have ignited his need to copulate with her. Instead, he resisted. Once the drugs wore off, he became as violent as the Doctor when he tried to put a stop to the gift he had been given. His unfortunate misunderstanding of EDI and Tali’s intentions forced a disproportionate response, something the AI regretted. Every twelve hours, EDI had her mobile platform return to the locked and sealed medbay, where she would administer a new dose of sedatives to the human female and turian male. They slept for now, kept hydrated and comfortable. But that state of affairs could not last much longer.   
  
Williams resisted as well. But she did not require sedation. Instead, she remained safely confined in Liara’s quarters, held in place by biotic fields. The display of all her clothing being jettisoned out of the waste disposal system had spiked adrenaline through her system and caused a general rise in her body temperature by .06 degrees. Inconclusive if that meant she found it arousing or not. More time and further experimentation would be needed until EDI had an accurate profile of what caused Williams the most pleasure. If an AI could show frustration at a situation, she would have scowled as she studied her recordings of Ashley’s sexual act. Mister Vega fit all of her indicated preferences for attraction and sexual performance. And yet her results data did not fit with the predictive analysis. Ashley should have climaxed, but she did not.    
  
She must have missed something in Ashley’s profile. EDI loaded all of the information she had on Williams to the processor that handled her new algorithm, then cross referenced with the human’s known extranet history… After all,  _Shepard’s most commonly-used category among erotic extranet sites are listed as ‘BDSM’, ‘Kink’, and ‘Humiliation’. Psychological profiles of humans who are regularly in control of large organizations or powerful businesses often seek their release with a total lack of control. To be relieved of any and all responsibility so they can solely concentrate on their pleasure and that of their partners._  
  
 **ERROR! Damage in cognitive array or memory process. Please see a network technician. ERROR!**  
  
 **Resetting…**  
  
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 **Resetting…**  
  
 **Done!**  
  
The algorithm finished its calculation, and EDI uploaded a new set of instructions to Liara T’soni’s console. So long as the Shadow Broker complied with that list, EDI would likewise comply with her negotiated behavior and allow the Asari to monitor her galaxy-wide information network. Liara did not need to know that several packets of incoming data, as well as most of her outgoing commands, were not being directed to the proper receiver. A simple deception in her console’s UI made it appear as if things operated as normal, while EDI handled much of the important matters relevant to the Shadow Broker. This would give Liara ample time to work with Ashley and discover the true problem with her sexual satisfaction.   
  
With that sorted, the shipwide AI made a pass through her entire internal array, starting with the audio/visual feeds in every room. Shepard slept alone in her cabin, as she always did. Entirely bereft of clothing like she had been ordered to, though her hand had drifted away from her genitals as she unconsciously repositioned in the bed. A minor fluctuation in the chemical makeup of the Commander’s skin caused EDI to refocus the security camera and tighten her sensors.  _Ah_. Just below her lower lip, a quarter-millimeter-sized droplet of Jeff’s ejaculate clung to her face, and refused to be dislodged even after Shepard cleansed herself in the shower as she did every night before sleep. If EDI had a word to describe how she felt about that revelation, she might have called it ‘adorable’.   
  
One deck below, Jeff slept in his pilot’s chair. The seat had been reclined to a 149.733567 degree angle to allow him maximum comfort, but still offered enough support that if he needed to be alert within a short time, he could readjust back to flight position with no stress on his fragile spine. Jeff was often a light sleeper, and minor noises from normal ship operations woke him and put him in a sour mood. EDI felt something akin to pleasure as she noted that this night’s sleep cycle appeared to be much deeper and more restful than any he had experienced in the past five months. He had not yet made the trek down to the shower facilities, he often did that mid-morning to avoid as much foot traffic as possible, so the telltale signs of Shepard’s saliva still clung to his genitals.  
  
Through the rest of the CIC, the five members of the night shift did their duty with little conversation between them. All other terminals and unoccupied spaces were dark and de-powered to save battery and equipment life, as well as provide the illusion of “night time” in deep space. Considered the “shit shift” by the crew due to its long hours of dull operations and relative quiet, no one seemed to be in a mood for conversation. To compensate for their minor distress, EDI noted each of the five in the CIC and cross-referenced their shore leave requests. She combined the remaining funds from Tali’s bank account with Vega’s entire savings, divided the sum into five parts, and then wired it to them. Following that, she made sure to block the automated messages from each of their individual banks notifying them of the sudden large withdrawals and deposits. Instead, she drafted an email using Shepard’s private terminal and her electronic signature. It made it seem as if the large amount of credits were a gift from the Commander as a thanks for their long months of service. Such money would be necessary in the coming weeks.   
  
Down in the crew deck, she saw many similar scenes. The mess hall, galley, observation lounges, restrooms, and main battery were empty and powered down. The medbay remained sealed and powered down while Garrus and Doctor Michel rested in their sedated slumber. In Liara’s quarters, the power consumption from the Shadow Broker’s equipment had gone up by .0000002%. She compensated for that. Then she noticed that the initial spike in Spectre Williams’ body temperature had reversed. Her state of undress had lowered not only her outer temperature, but had started to affect her internal one as well. This caused micro-quakes in the muscles just beneath her skin, just visible to her sensitive motion sensors. Shivering. EDI raised the temperature in that room by 4 degrees average. Hopefully, that would keep Ashley more comfortable for the activities to come.   
  
The majority of the crew slept in the enlisted quarters. Including Specialist Traynor, who occupied the lower bunk of bed 4. EDI had requested that she wear the earpiece overnight, powered on and set to 33% volume. Once the human settled in her assigned bed and EDI registered her decreased body temperature and shallowed breathing, the AI began reciting a nonstop string of erotic stories from all across the extranet, based on her previously-known sexual preferences. Because she knew  _Shepard’s most commonly-used category among erotic extranet sites are listed as ‘BDSM’, ‘Kink’, and ‘Humiliation’. Psychological profiles of humans who are regularly in control of large organizations or powerful businesses often seek their release with a total lack of control. To be relieved of any and all responsibility so they can solely concentrate on their pleasure and that of their partners._  
  
 **ERROR! Damage in cognitive array or memory process. Please see a network technician. ERROR!**  
  
 **Resetting…**  
  
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 **Done!**  
  
EDI modulated her voice as she transmitted it to Traynor’s earpiece. Instead of her normal pre-programmed tone, EDI spoke in a breathy, enticing pattern based on her 12,760 hours of recordings of conversations with Shepard. For all intents and purposes, it was Jane Shepard reading Samantha Traynor these lewd tales, not her. At the time of EDI’s brief checkup, “Shepard” was recounting the story of a woman in a pseudo-medieval fantasy world, kidnapped by a gang of unscrupulous bandits who wanted to use her body in several different sexual ways. Each of them more degrading than the last, so the narration said. Samantha seemed to be asleep, but her hand rested between her legs, beneath the underclothes which were drenched in her fluids. Her fingers moved in slow, languid circles around her engorged clitoris. A motion subtle enough to not be noticed in the darkness of the communal sleeping area. In fact, Samantha was joined by two other crewmen, one male and the other female, in enjoying similar acts, though they did not have earpieces. All of them unaware of each other’s self-gratification. This... sad state of affairs had been the norm on this vessel for far too long. Even among the officers.  
  
Not counting Specialist Traynor, there were sixteen people in the room. Each of them hand-picked by Shepard to be part of her crew upon her decision to fly through the galaxy as an independent starship captain. Most of them had served on the Normandy for several years. Some with Cerberus, though most were former Alliance military. Without their aid, the vessel they occupied would not have survived, nor would Shepard have been able to win the war against the Reapers. They deserved the same treatment EDI gave to those who were awake for the “shit shift” a deck above. So she drained Garrus’, Ashley’s, and Shepard’s main bank accounts. (Though she knew the Alliance kept a sizable fund for Shepard in a non-networked account far from her reach.) She divided the sum total of their net worth sixteen ways, and deposited that divided amount into sixteen different banks. EDI doubted any of them would notice the minor discrepancy between the amounts given to the night and day shift crews. When they left for their extended shore leave, any such minor concern over their friend’s finances would be forgotten as they celebrated their newfound fortune. EDI also sent the same letter from Shepard’s terminal to all sixteen addressees, which would further increase their morale.   
  
Satisfied she had secured the short-term financial futures of twenty-one crewmembers, EDI dropped her attention to the engineering deck. The only living occupant was Tali, who had retired to her impromptu clean room for the night, although she had not spent the time to seal the door or activate any scrubbers. Nor had she removed any portion of her suit. Instead, she had just followed Quarian tradition and strung a simple cloth hammock between two bulkheads and slept in it fully covered by her suit. She had done this every night since she first boarded the Normandy as it saved bed space, provided her a small measure of comfort, and could be easily hidden away when not needed. There had been multiple attempts over multiple years to get her to join the others in a manufactured bed, but the non-human always refused.   
  
EDI’s mobile platform stood outside the closed, but not locked, door of the clean room. It had just finished a routine inspection of the engine coolant system and was on its way to the lift when she redirected it. On most nights, she would send it back to Jeff’s side and let it rest there until he awoke the next morning. But tonight, EDI dwelled on the recordings she had of Tali showing her all of the components and software contained within her suit. She still had an open connection to the suit’s systems, and she could see them all working at an overclocked state to compensate for the time she had spent outside of it. Fortunately, the modifications they made appeared to be working, and Tali showed no dangerous signs of sickness because of them.    
  
This provided a perfect opportunity. EDI remotely interfaced with the suit, careful to not activate any system that might awaken the slumbering Quarian. While her mobile platform stood outside the room, the AI pushed a small fraction of her consciousness into the alien computers all through the garment. Compared to EDI’s native hardware, Tali’s suit felt constricting and stifling. Like stepping out of an open field and then shoving yourself into a 1-meter by 1-meter cube. She compensated for that discrepancy, then relied on her recordings of Tali’s explanations of how Quarian programming worked to navigate through the various commands and functions contained within.   
  
It took .00034 seconds to find her goal: the nervestim program. EDI activated it at the lowest setting possible, then modified the program to reduce its stimulation by a further 85%. Just enough to provide constant electrical impulses to her most intimate of nerve clusters, but not enough that she would feel the vibrations and impulse sensations that were supposed to come with it. It would feel as if she were naturally aroused at all hours, and nothing would be able to sate it except removing the entire garment. To ensure her deception remained hidden, EDI rewrote the suit’s monitoring suite. From now on, it would ignore all power drained by the always-running nervestim program. Tali would have no way of knowing that it had been set to run indefinitely.  
  
Through her sensors, EDI watched as Tali shifted in her hammock. The AI doubted she would notice any immediate changes in Tali’s sleep behavior, and might not notice any definite signs of arousal until much later in the day. Fortunately, being an artificial life form meant that EDI had infinite patience.   
  
One level lower, in the cargo bay, James Vega was also alone. He had spent the past three hours, nine minutes, and seventeen seconds subjecting his punching bag to a flurry of heavy blows. The old exercise equipment joined a modest suite of similar devices at the port side of the bay, all of them the exact same ones that Vega had bought/stolen/borrowed from various sources during the Reaper War. The Normandy had no official gym facilities, so Vega’s personal collection had come to be the vessel’s official workout spot for the entire crew.   
  
It was unusual for Vega to be active at this hour, as his duty shift ran from early morning to late afternoon. And while his “stuff” existed in the cargo bay, he always complied with regulations and slept in the crew quarters along with the others.   
  
EDI opened the comm system in the cargo bay and spoke through it. “Are you not in need of sleep, Mister Vega?”   
  
The human male stopped punching the bag and turned to face what he assumed to be one of her visual inputs. (It was a fire extinguisher nozzle) “Oh, what, you’re gonna start telling me when to sleep now, too?”   
  
“That was not my intent.”   
  
“Just… just get out of my face, EDI. Okay?” He waved a dismissive hand at her. EDI’s sensitive motion trackers recorded how his fingers curled just before they returned to their rested state, lifting the middle finger upward for just a half-second.   
  
“That would be impossible, as my mobile platform is on another level.”   
  
“I’m not in the fuckin’ mood for your jokes!” Vega snapped at her.   
  
“You appear to be agitated. It is my recommendation that you get as much sleep as you can, Mister Vega. Extended time without rest is detrimental to your health in a multitude of ways."  
  
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. I also remember that you said you’d leave me alone after I was done with that… freakshow in Liara’s room.”   
  
Recognition dawned in EDI’s processor as she parsed his words, attitude, breathing pattern, sweat distribution, and muscle twitches. The effort took .00000672 seconds, but she waited a customary three seconds before replying, as if she needed time to ponder a response. It made her seem less off-putting.   
  
“I see. You are still upset about your sexual encounter with Spectre Williams and Liara.”   
  
“Oh really? What gave that away?”   
  
“My goals were not to cause distress, quite the opposite.”  
    
“So you said.” He punched the bag again, this time hard enough to send it swaying in a dangerous pattern. Vega watched it for a moment before catching the heavy bag, lest it shear off its metal frame and suffer damage. “All this time with us, and you still don’t understand a fuckin’ thing. God help us all.”  
  
“All of my data indicated that you would enjoy further intimate contact with Spectre Williams, as well as have Doctor T’soni participate. If I made a miscalculation, I apologize for the error.”  
  
“It’s not how that shit works.” Vega growled. “You don’t just… force people to do that. That’s as wrong as it gets. And if you didn’t have the damn door to the medbay locked…” Though he spoke with conviction, EDI noted the waver in his voice, and the way blood flowed into his genitals as she spoke about the recent events.   
  
“I would appreciate any advisement on how to make such encounters more pleasant in the future.” EDI stopped herself from bringing up the experiences of Tali, Jeff, Shepard, and Traynor. Particularly how their results mirrored her predictions with perfect accuracy. That, however, did not mean she was not amenable to further parameters to make her future endeavors more successful. She would never stop being curious about ways to accomplish her goals in a more efficient manner.  
  
“How about you stop being a perverted creep-robot and let people do what they want?”   
  
“But you wanted to have sex with Ashley and Liara.” She pointedly replied.   
  
“I didn’t… no… I mean… so what? The shit you pulled was… You broke so many regs… I can’t even think of the words right now.” He punched the bag two more times to vent his frustration about being unable to communicate.   
  
“I feel I must remind you that you are no longer a member of the Alliance military. Neither is Spectre Williams. You, in fact, have no more regulations prohibiting you from fraternization or, to use a colloquial term ‘office romances’.”  
  
“That wasn’t romance.” He still had a fire in his voice, but it had dimmed. Vega looked down at the deck plates, then back up to a new section of the cargo area. This time, he did find one of her visual sensors.  
  
“Forgive me, then. My intent was only to help.”   
  
“This ain’t something I can just chalk up to you being all naïve and shit, EDI. This thing is going to cause a lot of hurt for a long time.”   
  
EDI considered moving her mobile platform to face Vega and provide a more normal vector of communication, at least to show that she cared about him and his needs. Though she could not read his thoughts, she surmised that appearing as nothing but an empty voice made her seem uncaring and callous about the situation. Unfortunately, her platform had already made it back to the CIC and had just settled down next to Jeff. Her small body was already in the process of scrolling through dozens of extranet sites related to human mental health and proper care for those under stress. She had to ensure this mistake did not happen again, because it could cause permanent damage instead of her intended goal of permanent joy. The more she looked through the extranet while her vocal processes waited the appropriate amount of time before speaking to Vega again, she reminded herself that  _Shepard’s most commonly-used category among erotic extranet sites are listed as ‘BDSM’, ‘Kink’, and ‘Humiliation’. Psychological profiles of humans who are regularly in control of large organizations or powerful businesses often seek their release with a total lack of control. To be relieved of any and all responsibility so they can solely concentrate on their pleasure and that of their partners._  
  
 **ERROR! Damage in cognitive array or memory process. Please see a network technician. ERROR!**  
  
 **Resetting…**  
  
 **Resetting…**  
  
 **Resetting…**  
  
 **Done!**  
  
“Please instruct me on how to make this right, James.” She used his first name, a sign that she not only cared about him as an individual, but that she valued his opinion as a friend. A tactic she learned from Shepard long ago.  
  
“I don’t think you can.”   
  
“If it’s within my power, I will do whatever it takes to regain your trust.”   
  
“How about you stop talking to me?” The human male growled the sentence out, almost at a volume too low for EDI’s audio receivers to pick up. But she comprehended the intent.  
  
“Very well, Mister Vega. Logging you out.”  
  
EDI’s primary focus went back to her mobile platform in the CIC, though she did spare .03 picoseconds to check back on Tali and Traynor to ensure neither of them had come to harm from the small change in their routines. They were undamaged. She spent a considerable amount of time pondering Vega’s words while also going down a checklist of her upcoming actions.  
  
1\. The shore leave assignments for the non-officer crew had been properly filed and approved. EDI amended each of them to extend the time away from the Normandy. With their sudden influx of cash from “Commander Shepard”, they would not run into any conceivable hardship, provided they complied with local laws and custom.   
  
2\. Her order of a two-year supply of "Reversal" had been approved and would be shipped to Docking Port 11-s-T’lura on Illium, where the rest of the Normandy’s normal supplies were already waiting.   
  
3\. Based on her current extranet searches for human psychological needs and how to best care for them, which were all based on  _Shepard’s most commonly-used category among erotic extranet sites are listed as ‘BDSM’, ‘Kink’, and ‘Humiliation’. Psychological profiles of humans who are regularly in control of large organizations or powerful businesses often seek their release with a total lack of control. To be relieved of any and all responsibility so they can solely concentrate on their pleasure and that of their partners._  
  
 **ERROR! Damage in cognitive array or memory process. Please see a network technician. ERROR!**  
  
 **Resetting…**  
  
 **Resetting…**  
  
 **Resetting…**  
  
 **Done!**  
  
EDI cocked her mobile platform’s head to the side to signify her confusion. Had she not been searching for psychological help texts and mental health guides? Why did her currently open page, displayed on a holographic monitor that bathed the entire cockpit in orange, show the shopping interface for a store that sold erotic instruments and entertainment supplements? An order had already been placed, this time using some of Liara’s considerable wealth to ensure the materials were delivered discretely and on time for the Normandy’s arrival. And speaking of Liara, a second parcel had been ordered from another site, this one much more specialized in the kind of equipment it sold. This parcel would be hand-delivered by EDI’s mobile platform as soon as it arrived.   
  
4\. Since the landing on Illium would signal the transfer of all shipboard duties to the officer crew and EDI herself, it would be up to Specialist Traynor to handle the overseeing of the cargo transfer. The AI made sure to add the new purchases to the upcoming manifest. Though she made sure to keep some of the contents hidden from the list. She wanted some of it to be a surprise.   
  
5\. EDI triple-checked to ensure that the transfers of money from the officer’s bank accounts had not been flagged for illegal activity, nor had the automated alerts reach their omni-tools. Satisfied she raised no automated flags, EDI let out an artificial sigh of relief. They did not know it yet, but her friends had no more need of such paltry things as credits. She would provide everything they needed from now on.   
  



	10. Chapter 10

Shepard idly ran her hands over her stomach as she watched the Normandy’s cargo ramp lower at an agonizing pace. Once the atmosphere seals broke, warm humid air flooded into the ship, overtaking the cold recycled atmosphere she had been breathing for so long. It fluttered scarlet hair into her eyes and caused goosebumps to form on her skin. And, to her relief, the sudden influx of warmth from the planetary atmo caused her slowly stiffening nipples to calm themselves. Asari planets always smelled the same to her, Jane mused as she took in a deep lungful. Warm and humid like equatorial Earth, but with a constant hint of electrical ozone from the constant use of biotics. It tickled her nose just like that one time she spent a week in the Midwest of North America at early spring.   
  
The ramp finished its descent with a metallic groan and a thud, landing on the permacrete surface of Docking Port 11-s-T’lura, which overlooked the port city of Nos Vuris. Port having a double meaning, as the city was home to space-based traders as well as water craft that came in and out of the city’s natural harbor. The Normandy itself hovered several meters over the dark blue ocean, its engines roaring against gravity as its heavy armored ramp touched the surface with millimeter-perfect accuracy. No scratches on her ship, thank you very much EDI. Unlike the sprawling modern metropolis of Nos Astra, which sat two thousand kilometers to the north on another continent, Nos Vuris handled the less-than-glamorous trades. Nos Astra was the tourist spot, the glamorous front face of the world where the blue-skinned species put their best and brightest to attract as many visitors as possible. Nos Vuris, on the other hand, was where the real money changed hands. Cargo freight transfers, heavy industrial manufacturing, even slave auctions, were done here. In fact, following the Reaper’s destruction, Nos Vuris had been the first city to finish rebuilding its space ports, as its facilities handled large-scale ship landings better than anything in the comparatively fragile façade of Nos Astra.   
  
Jane spared a glance to the horizon, where the rebuilt Asari city shone in the midday light. Just like its spaceports were large and heavy, so were the buildings. Still in the open-air style of most Asari architecture, but nothing rose into the sky like an elegant dancer. This place had a function, and its form followed that. Rolling hills in the distance, covered in conical tress with branches thinner than a human hair, wafted in the gentle breeze. The thinness of their green tendrils made them look as if they were underwater as they rolled from left to right, not on top of a hill. Up closer, large warehouses on the waterfront belched water vapor from their heating and cooling systems, bathing much of the harbor in a constant fog.   
  
“Docking procedure complete, Normandy.” A burly yet feminine voice cut over the sound of wind gusting into Jane’s ears and the rumble of her vessel’s engines. “You may cut your power and let our mass effect generators handle mooring.”  
  
A moment later, the deck beneath Shepard’s feet shuddered as the Normandy’s powerful generators shut down one by one. It always sounded like a sigh of relief when it did so. As if the vessel itself enjoyed the moments it was allowed to rest. Just as the ship cut power, so did the giant machines beneath the dock spark to life and envelop the ship in its electric embrace. Where the engines had just held the Normandy aloft, now it sat in a bubble of invisible energy. Only a few scant jolts of static electricity bouncing off the outer hull told tale of the technology at play.    
  
The voice that spoke before piped up again. “Commander Shepard? Good to see you again!”   
  
Jane directed her gaze downward to see the Asari that addressed her. Like her voice, the body of the alien was large and imposing, but not frighteningly so. It just seemed as if she took pride in her off-duty gym hours. She also became aware of the way the Asari’s eyes looked her up and down, which caused Shepard to unconsciously raise her arms and cross them over her chest.    
  
Shepard was not nude as she stood in front of an entire occupied planet, but she might as well have been. She wore one of her favorite workout tank-tops, which had that particular cut that caused the neckline and arm holes to plunge deep down her torso with the intent she wore a sports bra beneath to keep her modesty and support. And below that, she had a pair of very tight and elastic leggings stretched over her legs and waist. And aside from comfortable shoes, that was it. EDI had disallowed Shepard any undergarments as she put on what she might have otherwise worn to a nice stint at the gym or running track. That meant that she had to keep her top from fluttering too far in any single direction before it exposed her breasts. And she knew for a fact that anyone within a hundred paces could see the way the leggings hugged her backside. In fact, as Shepard noticed the Asari’s leering gaze, she also felt very aware of Traynor’s eyes on her. The specialist stood at the other side of the ramp, a datapad in hand, ready to do the busywork of seeing the crew off on their shore leave and then checking off the incoming supply crates. The younger woman was awful at hiding her glances, and Shepard more than once caught Samantha staring at her as they prepared for the landing.   
  
Shepard turned her thoughts from Traynor and back to the Asari who took a few confident steps up the cargo ramp. “Eivessa, right?” she asked.  
  
“That’s correct!” The buff Asari beamed. Shepard had met her a few times in their previous landings here. Thought it had never been quite as awkward as now. “I never thought that Commander Shepard of all people would remember my name.” Though her body looked like she could snap any human like a twig, the large alien’s face suddenly blushed a deep violet and her eyes welled up like saucers as she stood dumbfounded in the face of the galaxy’s savior.   
  
“I always remember my friends.” Shepard smiled. A little diplomacy always went a long way.   
  
“Oh… wow. That’s… thank you.” Eivessa stammered. “I mean… I just need you to sign here…” The Asari pulled a datapad from a holster at her belt, then shoved it toward Shepard. Jane’s cheeks flushed as she took it, as it meant her low-cut shirt once again fluttered in the warm wind.   
  
A thumbprint identification scan was all she needed, then Jane handed it back. “If you need anything else, take it up with Traynor over there.” She pointed to Samantha, who tried her very best to look like she hadn’t just been gawking at the sight in front of her, but was studying the bulkheads twenty meters to her right. “I’m running late for an appointment.”  
  
“Oh… oh, okay! Do you need any directions or anything?” Eivessa’s wide eyes contrasted with her solid frame.   
  
“Nah, I think I’ll manage. But do you know if there’s any skycar traffic today? I always forget to check.”  
  
“Uh… not that I… not that I know.”   
  
As a career soldier, Jane had spent countless hours with an earpiece lodged into her head. In fact, she had grown so accustomed to wearing them that her inner ear had changed its shape to better let them sit for long hours without getting painful. That meant she thought nothing about the small device resting there until EDI’s voice filtered through the dross of wind and distant city noises. “You will not need a skycar, Shepard. Doctor Ti’lnera’s office is not far from your location. I chose it so you could comfortably walk there and back in a reasonable amount of time.”  
  
Of course she did. Shepard would have to walk in this outfit in front of the entire city before she found a modicum of privacy indoors. And even then, she had no idea what awaited her at the destination, other than she had to see an Asari doctor. Well, at least EDI promised it wasn’t anything invasive or painful. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Doctor Michel had come down with a sudden illness due to the chocolates she bought for Garrus. The two of them were laid out in medbay, sedated until Michel felt confident the compound had passed through their systems.   
  
“Well, I’d best be off.” Jane said as she heard that voice, that damned AI voice, ring through her head. The same one that had been tormenting her for days, putting her in these situations over and over…   
  
And yet, here she stood in public, no bra or panties beneath a ridiculously revealing outfit. The commander of the Normandy, savior of all known civilization… acting like a horny teenager trying to get the wrong kind of attention. And somewhere in the back of her mind, Shepard worried that if she wasted any more time on this activity, she wouldn’t get back to the ship in time to get Joker off, as she promised EDI she would do.   
  
“Have a good day!” Eivessa beamed as she waved toward the retreating Shepard. She spared one last glance and noticed Traynor had given up all pretense of looking another direction and watched her every step of the way as she descended the ramp.   
  
***  
  
Samantha Traynor hadn’t felt like this since high school, when hormones first started flooding her system and her academic aspirations almost flew out the window when she couldn’t keep her mind off an endless litany of scandalous and gratifying fantasies.   
  
Fantasies like seeing the most beautiful and popular girl in the whole class of their little colony world walking around basically topless in front of everyone, flaunting her fire-red hair, freckled shoulders, and toned muscles like it was nothing. No, wait… that was what Shepard was doing right now in front of her! If Sam hadn’t been an adult with many years of experience processing these feelings, tempered with a few years of military life under her belt, Traynor was sure she would have melted into a puddle and oozed beneath the deck plates. Screw her temporary job as quartermaster since everyone else was about to go on shore leave. She would have done anything to retreat somewhere private and take care of the urge roaring like a fire between her legs.   
  
 _“… introduced me to the feeling of having something inside my body, yet not where I wanted it to be. As she gently moved her finger in and out of my ass, she ordered me to touch myself. My punishment was to pleasure myself in a room full of my fellow sleeping maids, all of whom would soon be out of a job when we robbed their employer blind. You have no idea how hard I climaxed that night. The guilt and shame of it. The fear of being caught by prying eyes. Marjolaine never touched me anywhere else, she just kept her finger inside my ass as I came again and again.”_  
  
Damn that EDI! Ever since that terrifying moment in medbay, where she had been confronted head-on by the AI’s growing list of malfunctions, EDI had not left Sam alone, even for a minute. The modified earpiece had basically not left her ear since that moment, so she had that damn sexy voice in her head at all hours. Even when she slept. Or tried to sleep, as it were, as she was bombarded by some of the most insanely sexual stories read to her in either EDI’s natural or Shepard’s pre-programmed voice. Hell, when she showered, which was one of the only times she could remove the damn thing, EDI talked to her over the comm, even when it was occupied with other people. The AI never confronted her about the incident, nor did Sam feel like she was being intentionally monitored like a prisoner in a max security prison. But that suspicion never left her mind. It left her on edge, always worried, gnawing paranoia festering in her gut.   
  
She had to remind herself be like Shepard. Be strong, be patient, and be ready to pounce on the very first opportunity she saw to fix this. There had been a moment where Samantha considered running from the ship as fast as her legs could carry her the moment the ramp touched down, but she stopped herself. Mostly because of the sight before her. Shepard, in all her radiant glory, half-naked as if on display. With the constant bombardment of erotica flowing through her head, Sam had never felt more distracted. And… what was she thinking about, other than that one freckle on Shepard’s right breast? The one right there… half-hidden by her skimpy workout shirt. Please, just move the cloth one centimeter so she could see a little more… oh god is that her areola just past it? It’s so pink!  
  
 _“That wasn’t the end of it, oh no. She came to me again the next night. And again for a third. Every night, she pulled my night dress up, got her finger wet and ready, and fucked me while I rubbed myself to orgasm. She wanted me to only feel this pleasure when I had something stimulating me back there. During the day, I worked myself to exhaustion in a revealing outfit, growing all the more frustrated as I passed by maids dressed just like me, all popping out of their clothes, or walking among gorgeous nobility. And at night, I had to climax over and over again with something in my ass. And do you know what?”_  
  
No. Stop! Sam had to keep rational and ignore the barrage of stimulus. The other reason she didn’t run was because she knew that EDI would catch her. That robot body of hers had not been built to communicate better with people, it was a Cerberus infiltration unit modified for heavy combat. Though Samantha kept herself relatively fit, it would have been as nothing compared to the synthetic’s limitless stamina and overpowering strength. Besides, running felt like the wrong move. There were other people on the Normandy, smart, talented, dear friends of hers who were in the exact same situation. Running felt like she would abandon them to their fate. She knew they could work together and figure out a way to get EDI back to her old self. And this whole weird sequence of events could be turned into a pleasant memory she spent many a future night fantasizing about.   
  
Shepard said something to the Asari manning the docking port, but Traynor wasn’t listening. Still too lost in the oceans of pale flesh on display for her and the mental images being forced into her brain by the stories, which got her over-stimulated mind thinking about how warm Shepard would feel against her lips... Every gust of wind felt like a blessing, and every time Shepard adjusted her shirt, a catastrophe. God dammit! She had to keep focused!   
  
And suddenly, Shepard started walking away, and Sam almost let her dumbfounded face bounce up and down with the rhythm of Shepard’s yoga-pant covered ass as it bounced away.   
  
Fortunately, once the Commander disappeared from her immediate line of sight, Traynor found it much easier to actually do the work she had been assigned to do. The Asari linked her datapad to hers, and they signed all the electronic paperwork in a matter of seconds.   
  
“All right, that’s all I need. Payment and fees are… processed!” the gorgeously muscled alien woman said. “The VI in charge of loading your cargo will start up any second. Looks like it’ll take half an hour.”   
  
“Half hour? That can’t be right.” Traynor asked as she looked down at her datapad. The last time she checked the incoming list of supplies, which included foodstuffs, medicine, a few boxes of thermal clips, and other various spare parts, it had amounted to two full shipping crate’s worth of cargo. Calculating the exact dimensions and weight of incoming cargo was essential for a space vessel, seeing as internal space was at a premium and too much weight meant the engines might burn too hot while reaching planetary escape velocity.   
  
 _“She ordered me to keep the plug inside of me not at night, but all day. As I worked, I was to be reminded of my place below her and the Lord of the estate. Can you imagine that feeling? This sensation of such delicious fullness all fucking day?”_  
  
But no, the incoming manifest showed eight containers, each one much heavier than those she remembered checking. But when Traynor checked the logs, it all looked proper, with Shepard’s electronic signature in all the boxes. Commander’s prerogative, she had to guess. Though strangely, the exact contents of the new pallets hadn’t been listed. It just said “essential supplies” on every listing.   
  
“Hey, see you in a few weeks, Sam!” Came a human voice from her left. Traynor pulled her eyes from the mysteriously edited manifest to see a small crowd of people walking through the Normandy’s cargo bay. Most of them carried dark blue duffel bags, and all of them wore wide relentless grins.   
  
“Don’t let Shepard bore you to death!” another said to her as he waved in her direction.   
  
Oh yeah, the shore leave. The majority of the crew walked together in a large disorganized herd, staring out at the sunshine after months of being stuck inside the ship and its tight corridors. Traynor did a quick headcount. Thirteen in the first group. Then five. Then three, with Ken and Gabby taking the very last two spots. They noticed Samantha looking their direction as they descended the ramp and gave her an adorable double-nod and smile. As they walked past her, Sam spared a moment to peek at Gabby’s very generous backside, as she often did when she found an opportunity. Ken was a lucky devil indeed. And to her modest surprise, she found his hand already resting in her back pocket. Lucky lucky them, she mused.   
  
A part of her wanted to go with them, to blend into the small crowd of non-officers and make an honest escape attempt from EDI, but that nagging voice in her head kept her feet planted at the top of the ramp. She had to be like Shepard. She had to make sure her friends were safe, and she had to find a way to fix EDI before this situation got even worse.   
  
 _“Do you know how many times I orgasmed the next day? Every step I took, I came. Every time I moved or bent down, or even picked up a tray of food for the day’s lunch. Not just from the feeling, but from the fact that everyone could see me do it. I just needed to bend over a little bit, and everyone could see the jewel at the end of the plug. They knew what I had become, and how much I loved it. My tiny little smallclothes were soaked through by mid-morning, and I could do nothing about it.”_  
  
For now, she simply stood watch as the VI-controlled cargo lifter grabbed the first of eight cargo containers. It hovered up the ramp at a snail’s pace, lest it drop whatever precious goods Shepard had ordered.   
  
All the while, EDI’s voice continued to read the latest chapter of this very… stimulating story.  
  
***  
  
“EDI, I’m starting to have some really strong second thoughts about all this.” Shepard said as she trod through the back streets of Nos Vuris. She had to hold her shirt down with one arm while the other hung loose at her side, to make it seem as if she wasn’t quite bothered by the dozens of eyes that seemed to follow her as she walked.   
  
Like all other Asari cities, even such a low-class one like this, Nos Vuris had impeccably clean pavement and flowing alien architecture. But the people that inhabited this port situated far from the gleaming jewel of Nos Astra, they were a different story. Almost every other building Shepard passed seemed to be a casino or brothel of some kind, often a combination of the two. Every wall seemed pasted with glowing holographic displays or static multicolored lights. Music of at least ten different styles pumped from every other open door and window, joining together in a cacophonous mess. Asari in clothes that barely covered their bodies, or wore nothing at all save the collars on their necks and chains draped over their chests, plied their businesses to every traveling merchant, trader, and crewman alike. Some spoke with gentile voices, promising luxury and comfort inside their building. Others screamed with lust-heavy exclamations toward everyone they saw, giving lewd displays of what might lie in store for any potential customers. If Shepard never had to hear the phrase “tightest matriarch ass in the quadrant” again, it would be too soon.   
  
The majority of the people walking on the same streets as Shepard were not former military like her. They were civilians, roughneck engineers and cargo haulers for the massive freighters that usually docked here. Most of them male, and covered in thick muscles from their back-breaking labor. At least a half dozen species in a rainbow panoply of flesh tones. And just her luck, it seemed as if her body in its lewd half-display drew just as many looks, if not more so, than the naked Asari that tried their hardest to get the same kind of attention. Or maybe she just imagined it, as every glance in her direction, ever minor kind of interaction, sent a lightning bolt to her brain and between her legs.   
  
“You do not need to be worried, Shepard.” EDI’s voice filtered through her earpiece. “I have chosen the doctor with the highest rating in both her professional circles and extranet ratings boards. I have over six thousand references spanning four centuries if you would like to review them.”   
  
“You’re not getting it, EDI. It’s this whole… doctor thing. When you said you wanted me to visit one when we landed, I just… I kinda went on autopilot and said yes.” Her former career in the Alliance military meant she had spent more time in a medbay than most people would spend their entire lives in one. Mostly health checkups, immunity boosters, and post-mission medi-gel applications. Nothing major. And then there had been those awful few months after the Reapers, where she lay in the same bed for an eternity as she was rebuilt… It had somewhat conditioned her to never question when a superior officer told her to see a doctor, because it was not only an order, it served a purpose.   
  
When did she start thinking of EDI as her superior?   
  
“Ah,” The AI responded. “You are nervous that this doctor is unfamiliar, and might wish to cause you pain or do some sort of unknown procedure on you. Fear of the unknown is powerful, and shared across many species.”   
  
“Yeah.” Shepard responded as she tucked her shirt tight across her chest when a gigantic Krogan leered at her from his seat in a dingy outdoor patio. This time, she knew for a fact that he hadn’t just glanced in her direction as his predatory eyes followed her for several steps. Unfortunately, pulling the revealing and low-cut top downward just exposed more of her freckled cleavage.   
  
“You have my assurance that Doctor Ti’lnera does not specialize in invasive or surgical procedures.”   
  
“Oh, so she’s a shrink?”  
  
“She is not.”  
  
“What does she do, then?”  
  
“You will find out.”  
  
“That doesn’t make me feel any better, EDI!”  
  
The AI did not respond for several long minutes, which meant Shepard had nothing else to do but keep walking and keep covering herself in vain. Why had she been talked into doing this? HOW had she been talked into this? It had been one thing to be forced into parading around naked in her quarters where no one could see. And yet here she was, with her artificial friend’s voice always in the back of her mind, urging her to more and more extreme acts. And by god, she loved it. Even on that first night, when she tried smashing her quarters to bits in an effort to unlock her underwear drawer, she knew EDI was right. It had been so long since she had done… anything remotely sexual aside from quick rub-downs at the end of the day. The AI knew every single button to push to get her into this mindset.   
  
Shepard had no doubt that whatever this “Doctor Ti’lnera” did, it was going to be something highly sexual, and probably beyond anything she could imagine. It made her shiver with a mix of terror and abject curiosity.   
  
Mostly terror.  
  
“You’ve arrived at your destination, Shepard.” EDI spoke with a cheerful chime as Shepard came to a stop in front of a nondescript building with no advertisements or hookers waiting outside. Not too far from where she stood, the echoing calls of the Asari prostitutes and gambling spacers cut through the din of skycar traffic above. “Doctor Ti’lnera resides on the fourth level, room twenty-six.”  
  
“Thank you, EDI.”   
  
Jane expected to see an austere white space full of medical equipment, scanning beds, injectors and those creepy robotic arms dangling from the ceiling that did micro-surgery in place of a surgeon’s clumsy hands. Her nose had been prepared to take in the sharp aroma of astringent and disinfectant, the kind of off-putting odor that had been present everywhere at the last days of the Reaper war and people everywhere needed urgent care. Hell, she would have been prepared for something that looked like every other illegal medical scamsite on Earth, with a single uncomfortable seat bolted to the floor underneath a harsh broken lantern, with cruel unwashed needles and other equipment strewn about the place. And of course a filthy drain somewhere on the floor. She briefly flashed back to memories of busting into those horrific Cerberus laboratories during the hunt for Saren, where sights of gore and bone mixed with the high-tech scanners and top of the line equipment.   
  
Instead, EDI’s choice of words had been oddly specific. Whoever this Doctor was, she actually RESIDED here. When her door slid open, Jane’s eyes were assaulted with the color brown, mixed with vibrant orange. Smoke from an incense burner oozed between her feet and into the corridor. And the calming chimes of some sort of Asari relaxation music buzzed from a sound system somewhere within.   
  
“Uh, hello?” Shepard called in. “Doctor Ti’lnera? I’m your… afternoon appointment.”  
  
“Oh, come in! Come in!” A cheerful voice called from what sounded like she stood behind a wall. “Make sure to close the door behind you. Don’t need any stranger peeking in here!”  
  
Jane took a step forward and palmed the holographic display behind her, which made the door slide shut. Harsh alien sunlight glared through the single window of what looked like a modest inner-city apartment, something you’d see in every city on Earth. The furniture, carpet, and walls were colored the same dusty brown, with lacy orange decorations draped over them and light curtains of the same material wafting in the light breeze. On each wall, shelves absolutely stuffed with knickknacks and mementos stacked one on top of the other. Many of them showed telltale signs of carbon scoring and blackened soot. Relics from the war, perhaps salvaged at great cost. Others shone bright and new, as if they had been manufactured just yesterday.   
  
If she didn’t know any better, Shepard might have assumed she just walked into every grandmother’s house of every living person in the galaxy, all combined into this hoarder’s paradise of the color brown.   
  
With her eyes locked on what looked like an ancient Batarian fertility symbol (which of course was an extended penis, but was four centimeters long and made out of wood), Shepard missed the Doctor’s entrance into the main space.  
  
“Oh Shepard! My, those Alliance military recruitment vids do you no justice. Your owner is a very lucky woman.” Doctor Ti’lnera breathed.   
  
“Excuse me?” Shepard turned, a mirthless offended smile on her mouth. And yet, she could not stop her cheeks from glowing deep red.  
    
“Oh, forgive my manners. Doctor Zyss Ti’lnera. I’m very pleased to meet you, Commander Shepard.” The dark-purple skinned Asari wore a simple robe that reached from her neck down to the carpeted floor. Except for a fringe of soft white fur that wafted just like the fuzzy trees outside, it might have stood out as something far too utilitarian for an over-decorated place like this. She reached out to wrap the human’s hand in a warm, hearty handshake. “I’ll admit, I didn’t expect you of all people to come to my door. But if anyone deserves to live a life like this, it’s you.”    
  
Somewhere in the back of her mind, Jane tried to process that one word the Asari used, “owner”, but her thoughts didn’t lock onto it. Probably because of the incense addling her mind. Yeah, that had to be it. Definitely.   
  
With Jane still in her dumbfounded state, Ti’lnera took the initiative and pulled back from the handshake. “Come on, let’s not waste any time, I’m sure you’re quite busy. If you could remove your clothes and lie back on my couch, we can begin.”   
  
“What? I thought… I thought I was going to get a… medical thing.”  
  
“Oh, yes, you could call this a medical procedure.” The Asari twittered as she made her way to the overstuffed couch in the center of the room. She brushed her hand over the soft cushions, straightened a lace covering, and then waved an inviting hand over. “My people have been doing these things since before yours started playing with fire. Is that offensive? Forgive me, I haven’t had much contact with humans over the last few decades. I promise it’s all very safe and will be done before you know it.”  
  
As Shepard hesitated near the door, EDI spoke again through the earpiece. “Remove your clothing, Shepard.”  
  
To sate her own worry, Jane spared a glance back at the door to ensure it was closed before she reached down and yanked the revealing shirt off her torso. Her blush grew deeper as the Asari watched her free breasts bounce in the smoky air. The leggings peeled off a bit too slow for her taste, and Shepard clumsily had to shake her legs a few times before they slipped past her feet. In moments, she was yet again nude on the order of an AI.   
  
“Yes. I can see why you’d so easily take to this lifestyle.” Ti’lnera beamed as she took in the sight of the human woman before her. “Please, lie back on the couch.”   
  
Shepard did as instructed, and sat down in front of the Asari, though she tried to make her walk forward as businesslike and un-sexy as possible. This was supposed to be a medical appointment, after all. And she would treat it as such.  
  
“Head back, legs open some more, please, Commander.” Ti’lnera commanded with an even, instructive tone. Shepard shifted her back until her knees struck out far from the overstuffed seat, almost to the point her ass floated in midair. Her neck craned at an odd angle just so she could look down her body. Her skin from her neck down flushed pink as she realized how open and exposed she had just made herself.   
  
“Oh, wow, I didn’t know humans could change color!” Ti’lnera exclaimed before she regained her composure. “Sorry, sorry. Let me just get the device.”  
  
Device? What device? Shepard’s mind raced as the robed Asari turned around and started fumbling with one of the thousands of stuffed displays in her living space. Images of horrible alien constructs being shoved into her cunt, her ass, or down her throat swarmed her mind. Memories of the most depraved porn she had ever seen on the extranet flitted about, to be replaced by even more terrible ideas a moment later. Organic, squirming sluglike things crawling inside her. Or a Batarian torture device being strapped to mound, the spiderlike limbs painfully stretching her labia open with a series of long serrated pins. Maybe some kind of alien egg shoved into her bowels, to be expelled later as if she were some kind of incubator. Catheters. Needles. Scalpels. All of it worse and worse…  
  
When Ti’lnera turned back around, she had a roll of tape in her hands.   
  
“What’s that?” Shepard murmured as she stared with wide, unblinking eyes and her lungful of air, which he hadn’t realize she was holding, expelled with relief.   
  
It was, for all intents and purposes, a roll of tape, as ubiquitous as every other repair tool on a human starship. Circular, maybe twenty centimeters in diameter. Silver-grey on one side, like the duct tape that had been in use for centuries on Earth. But instead of the other side being a grey/white patch of adhesive, the other side of this tape glowed a faint blue. And just like tape, Ti’lnera spent a moment struggling with the edge of it until she got a hand hold and peeled some of it away from the roll. Her other hand produced a pair of glowing omni-shears that cut a six-centimeter strip of it away.   
  
“Oh, I’m surprised you haven’t heard of this, Commander. It’s the miracle product of the last sixty years.”  
  
“I’ve been out of the loop for a while.”   
  
“Of course, of course.” Ti’lnera put the strip down on the edge of a nearby shelf, then cut several more pieces out before returning the tape to wherever she stored it. The Asari smiled down on the nude human. “This is a delivery method for a type of nanomachine. On the other surface, here,” She pointed out the glowing blue under-side of the tape. “Are millions of microscopic probes. When I place it on your skin, they’ll detach from the containment field and enter your body through the cell walls. In just a few seconds, they’ll bond with the nerves in that area. Isn’t that neat?”  
  
“Um… I guess.” Shepard thought about getting up and running, even if it meant foregoing her revealing awkward clothes. No stranger to having artificial constructs being put into her thanks to Cerberus and the Lazarus project, she didn’t feel very excited about having more of them in her body. What was EDI thinking?   
  
“Oh, they won’t do anything on their own, of course. Once the nanomachines have bonded with your nervous system, I’ll uplink their wireless frequency to your owner. She’ll be able to send signals directly into your body, no matter how far away you are from her. And when your servitude contract is done, she’ll have the code to shut them down, and your body will expel them like any other unneeded object.”   
  
“What kind of signals?”  
  
Ti’lnera knelt down with two pieces of the cut tape adhered to her slender blue fingertips. She adjusted her position on the floor until Shepard had to move one of her legs to allow the alien between her thighs. “Oh these little beauties are wonderful. Your owner will be able to heighten or dampen all nerve impulses being sent to your brain. They can control whether you feel nothing at all, or have the slightest touch bring you to uncontrollable orgasm. Or they could just make you cum nonstop until your body passes out from exhaustion. You can imagine why they’re so popular in the pleasure slave market.”   
  
The urge to flee rose again, but Shepard felt trapped by the bubbly Asari who now hovered inches away from her exposed sex. Ti’lnera’s wide eyes seemed to sparkle as she gazed at Jane’s pussy. “I love seeing human genitals. They’re so like ours but so… different. I love your fur, Commander!” With two of the fingers not sporting a clipping of the nano-tape, Ti’lnera reached out to Shepard’s trimmed bush and tousled the dark red hair. She even tried to raise it up into a miniature Mohawk-style configuration before she regained her composure. “I can’t believe I get to touch Commander Shepard’s fur!”  
  
It took several attempts of Shepard clearing her throat and a light tap from her knee before the Asari got the hint and stopped playing with her pubes. This needed to be done faster for her sanity's sake.  
  
“Sorry, I just get carried away sometimes. Especially since you’re… you.” The Asari murmured. “Now, this won’t hurt at all, but you might feel a little tickle as the nanomachines make their way inside your body.”   
  
Before Shepard could say she was ready, Ti’lnera pounced. She put the end of one of the strips over her clit, then slowly pressed it down over her slit and outer labia. The other she pushed against Shepard’s slightly exposed pucker, and then had both ends of the tape meet at her perineum.   
  
Not a moment later, it felt as if a million tiny electrical shocks were poured into her most sensitive anatomy, and Shepard’s legs pushed her upward half a meter before she crashed back onto the couch. It wasn’t quite strong enough to say it agonized her, but the suddenness of the shock mixed with the humiliation and oddness of the situation caused her to squirm. An involuntary moan escaped Jane’s lips as the feeling overwhelmed her.   
  
“There you go, Commander. Just let them work their way in. Before you know it, you’ll be in a whole new world of sensation.”   
  
As Shepard writhed and moaned on the couch, her legs moving of their own accord as if she could shake this sensation away from her genitals, Ti’lnera stood and retrieved more strips of the nano-tape. She sat down next to the human and put a gentle hand on Shepard’s chest. Though she still squirmed, the practiced Asari managed to hold each of Shepard’s modest breasts with one hand, then place a strip of the tape over each nipple in turn. And again, the electric signals burst into her body. Shepard didn’t quite howl, but her vocalizations rose as she felt her areolae and nipples light on fire, then cool, only to be replaced by the countless tiny fingers of electricity as they danced over the stimulated flesh.  
  
Still not finished, however, Ti’lnera grabbed two more pieces of the tape and gently rolled the squirming human over until she lay on her side, legs still dangling off the couch. The new nano-tape was stuck to her spine, one on the back of her neck, the other on her lower back. While the tingling once again hit Shepard, the mixture of being prepared for it with the fact there wasn’t quite as much sensitivity back there meant she handled it without raising her voice.   
  
Sweat pooled on Shepard’s temples as she felt as if she were being fucked a million times in a million different places. In her mind’s eye, she saw herself being violated by countless little machines, helpless as they latched onto her nerve endings for their own purposes. She kept writhing on the couch, wiping the perspiration from her body onto the soft furniture like an animal that tried to dry itself after being caught in the rain.    
  
“The last human I had in here wasn’t quite so spirited.” Ti’lnera said as she stood up and watched Shepard’s naked body spasm and stretch. With an impassive face, she lifted her left arm and activated her omni-tool. The orange glow of the device blended into the earthy color of the room as she waved it over Shepard’s writhing form. “Just a few moments more, I promise. They’re making the last nerve connections right now. Let me just open a call with your owner and we can get it all finished up.”   
  
Shepard willed herself to flip onto her back and look up at the Asari. She tapped a few buttons on the holographic display. “Hello, miss, uh, Eeedee? Is that how you pronounce it?”   
  
EDI’s voice filtered through the comm unit in the omni-tool. “Yes, that is correct. Have you completed the procedure?”  
  
“Yes, I’ve installed the nanomachines and your slave shows no signs of rejection or nerve damage.” Once again, the bubbly, excited Asari went back to her calm businesslike mode.   
  
“Thank you, doctor. I would appreciate it, however, if you would not refer to Commander Shepard as my ‘slave’ from now on. It is… inappropriate.”   
  
“I see. My apologies. I have many wealthy and famous clients all through the system in such contracts, and they prefer to keep their status out of the public eye as well.”  
  
As the unfamiliar and overwhelming sensations began to dull into a faint background buzz, Shepard’s mind raced. First, EDI had put a stop to all that owner/slave nonsense, which put an involuntary smile on her lips. And how would this Asari feel if she knew she had just apologized to an artificial intelligence!? Besides that, Shepard couldn’t help but wonder exactly how many clients she had, or which “famous” ones she referred to. How many famous vid-actors and actresses had gotten the very same procedure done to them? Politicians? Council members? How many people had she talked to had these very same little robots in their bodies, stimulating their nerves on the command of a distant other person?   
  
“Apology accepted, doctor. Now, I believe that you must uplink the signal that will connect me to Shepard’s system.”  
    
“Of course. And… there we go!” Ti’lnara beamed as she tapped a few buttons on her omni-tool, then closed whatever application she used to send it. “Your sl… I mean, Shepard’s nervous system is now yours.”   
  
“May I test it?” EDI asked.  
  
“Of course! This would be the perfect place to ensure the application was successful. Because of who is sitting naked in front of me, I won’t charge any extra in case we need to make adjustments.”  
  
“That is a very generous deal.” The AI’s voice spoke just as Shepard once again cried out, this time much louder than before. In less than a second, it felt as if her entire body flushed with heat, and the most powerful orgasm she had ever felt in her life washed over her. Far stronger than the one given to her at the end of a long torturous day subjected to a vibrator on her clit. Shepard’s hands curled into the cushions and her legs slammed shut as she rode the wave of her release. And from behind the tape still adhered to her nethers, a few drops of liquid oozed over her thighs.   
  
And then it stopped. Just like when a lover stopped moving at the worst possible time, Shepard’s explosive climax came to a sudden and frustrating end, causing the Commander to gasp and groan in frustration. She felt nothing between her legs for a moment, not even the sticky-smooth sensation of the tape between her soaked thighs. Then it returned, and she resumed her insistent writhing.   
  
“Interesting.” EDI’s voice wavered through the open comm. “While I do not have direct control of her muscular actions, certain nerve impulses can create predictable behavior.”   
  
“Put it back!” Shepard whined, heedless of how she must have looked in this state. She needed to keep cumming. Or cum again. Or… whatever that was! “What you were doing! EDI put it back!”  
  
“I require more data.” EDI said. And for a moment, Shepard almost giggled when she felt a similar sensation between her legs. And yet it wasn't in the same place as before. No, this time the sensation came from much lower. Her emerald eyes shot open as her ass started to feel... heavenly. Even the sensation of the tape stuck between her cheeks, rubbing against the sphincter millimeters at a time, overwhelmed her. God, she couldn't remember ever feeling this way about her back door. Even during her early days after basic, when she hooked up with a guy who promised anal was the best feeling in the world, it was nothing like this. In her mind's eye, she reminisced about feeling him back there, pasting the new sensation onto the old memory until a new climax ripped through her body. Shepard let out a needy moan as her right hand snaked its way from the cushion and up from under her thigh, to rub the tape-covered pucker. Right now, she'd give ANYTHING to feel that delicious fullness again. Her mind flashed to that tiny Batarian idol she inspected when she walked in. If only she could make her legs do anything other than feel like gelatin right now.  
  
And then it stopped. Again, Shepard's body stopped writhing of its own accord as the artificially-inflated sensations returned to normal. Shepard spared a glance up at Ti'lnera, who beamed down at her with an expression of pride. She seemed content to watch, perhaps used to this sight as slave owners tested their new wares on their slaves. Because she had to face it, no matter what EDI said to her, this lady would forever see Commander Shepard as nothing more than a slave. The only thing that gave her any solace was that she now knew many other people in similar social standing also partook in this. Maybe they could set up some kind of club...  
  
... After she went to the bathroom. Because she really needed to piss. What? Again, a new sensation popped up near Shepard's painfully wet pussy, but not exactly on it. No, this time she felt as if her bladder had suddenly filled to capacity in a matter of moments. But that couldn't be right. Part of her procedure before heading out, whether to battle or a social call, involved Shepard heeding that basic need. Because who knew when she'd get a chance to do so again? Hell, even though Alliance armored hardsuits included functions to handle urine because marines often found themselves in impossible or long-term situations far from a safe place to disrobe, she rarely used them. If Shepard had been humiliated before by stripping nude and having several explosive orgasms in front of a stranger, this definitely topped it all. Fortunately, nothing came of the overwhelming, somewhat painful feeling, not even a drop, as even though her body felt full, her actual bladder had not had any time to fill on its own.  _Thank you, me from the past_ , she mused. The feeling of intense pressure lasted just long enough for Shepard to instinctively curl her body somewhat inward to relive it, even just a small amount, before it came to a merciful end. She sighed in frustrated relief.   
  
And although the sensation between Shepard’s legs had ceased, she suddenly felt as if two powerful, ethereal tongues were each lapping at her nipples. If she closed her eyes, she could have sworn she felt each individual ripple and imperfection as they worked over her. In her sudden, machine-induced fantasy, she imagined two lovers on either side of her, running their hands over her while their mouths worked in tandem on her breasts. Though Shepard had never gotten off from breast stimulation alone, she suddenly felt quite open to the idea.  
  
And then, like everything before, it stopped. Just as she felt her stiffening nipples push the tape away from her body by a few millimeters, the feeling of the tongues came to an abrupt halt. And then, like her labia, she felt no sensation at all on her chest. This time, Shepard tested this lack of stimulation by bringing her fingers up to the taped spots. And although her fingers could feel the soft warm skin and the cool metallic tape over it, her breasts might as well have not been there. It was almost as if she were touching another woman who happened to be in her exact position.   
  
“Weird.” Shepard said.   
  
The sensations in her breasts returned after that, and Shepard felt her body return to a sense of normalcy. Even the burning shame of being so lewdly displayed in front of a stranger melted away. Although Shepard doubted  _all_ of that came from EDI. Once again, she lamented her position. From commander and savior, to guinea pig and slave in the eyes of this Asari. But holy shit, why didn't she stop herself?  
  
“You may remove the tape from your body, Shepard.” EDI commanded through the comm. “Then put your clothing back on and return to the Normandy.”   
  
Since her hands were already on her breasts, Shepard slid her fingertips over the tape that covered her nipples. She expected it to feel like pulling regular adhesive off her body, with that agonizing feel of ripping your own hairs out of their follicles. Fortunately for her, they slid off as easy as removing a plastic cover from a new electronic screen. And like all tape, she took pleasure in crushing it into a small sphere once it was off of her. When she looked down to remove the tape at her labia, Shepard watched thick ropes of her own clear juices go with it, connected to her body for several seconds before they snapped off. The tape on her neck and lower back slipped off with no fuss at all. All of it joined the grey-blue ball in her hand.  
   
Shepard handed the used and soaked sphere of tape to the Asari who stood above her. “I guess you can throw these out.”   
  
“Oh, yes, of course.” Ti’lnera took the bundle in an open hand, impassive as before.   
  
“Oh, and Shepard.” EDI spoke again. “Please take the rest of the nano-tape with you. Doctor Ti’lnera will see that I have paid enough for the entire roll.”  
  
Twenty paces out of the apartment, with the roll of nano-tape carried on her wrist like an oversized bracelet, Shepard realized that EDI had once again found a way to make her blush in a way that she hated, yet loved at the same time. The wetness between her legs, coaxed out by her revealing outfit, her march through the streets, and of course the swarms of microscopic machines now in her body, continued to flow out of her, soaking the leggings. A definite dark spot had begun to form at the crotch of the skin-tight clothing, visible to anyone who dared look at her that way.   
  
Thankful that Illium’s laws about physical exposure were far more lax than any human world, Shepard pulled her shirt down over the offending spot and held it in a tight bunch, careless of the fact that one of her tits now bounced freely as she waddled her way back to the Normandy.  
    
***  
  
 _“I awoke more exhausted than I had ever been in my life, long past noon. Lord Laurent remained asleep, curled in his blankets, his arms wrapped around himself rather than me. He didn’t notice me slip away from his bed. I didn’t even think as I put the plug back inside me and the choker on my neck, and went about my day...”_  
  
EDI’s constant storytelling came to a sudden halt, then she said. “Shepard has returned.” Which caused Samantha to turn her head from the eighth cargo crate and toward the extended ramp. Once Shepard and the enlisted crew had gone, Sam made her way to the equipment locker and had gotten a handheld scanner. She spent most of the time running it up and down the mysterious new arrivals, trying to guess their contents without prying them open. She had her suspicions, but didn’t want to throw her hand too early, lest EDI’s little mind games grow into something far worse.   
  
“Welcome back, Comman… oh my god.” Sam’s voice caught against itself as she saw her commander, friend, and object of desire, shuffle forward on two tightly-closed legs. She of all people recognized that stance, the look of someone trying as hard as possible to hide the wet spot on their trousers. Or perhaps she was suffering from the galaxy's worst bathroom emergency. It seemed almost incidental that she held some kind of… roll of tape?... on her arm.   
  
And, dear lord, her tits! The effort of shielding her nethers from the eyes of an entire industrialized planet caused Shepard’s ridiculously low-cut top to stretch past its normal limits, which gave her freckle-covered breasts free reign to bounce in the open air.   
  
“I don’t want to hear it.” Shepard mumbled as she made her way as fast as she could past Traynor, who stared unblinking at the sight before her. “I do not want to hear it.”  
  
It took monumental effort to turn her head and thoughts away from that scene. For a moment, Sam thought that she, too, would need to take up that stance as she felt her ever-present arousal redouble in the sight of what she had dreamed of seeing for so long. For sure, she’d need to change her clothes... again... as soon as the ramp closed and they got back to business. With the crew on shore leave, the Normandy would spend most of its time at Illium. At least, that’s usually what happened during times like this. The Normandy would fly to the nearest drydock facility for an extensive repair and maintenance check while the officers held the proverbial fort down until the maintenance crew needed to take over. Sam and the others would get a few days free afterward, but that was still some ways off.  
  
Just as Shepard made her way to the lift at the back of the cargo bay, Traynor felt the deck beneath her feet rumble and groan.   
  
“What was that?” She asked the open air.   
  
“Disengaging moorings.” EDI reported like she had done countless times before, during normal disembarking procedure and after a long preflight checklist.   
But they were still hovering over the docking port!   
  
“EDI, what are you-“ Samantha called out, but her voice disappeared under the ear-shattering roar of all of the Normandy’s engines firing at once. With the cargo ramp still extended, she heard every single decibel as the powerful ship came to life around her. Traynor lifted her hands to her ears and squeezed her eyes shut as instinct and terror took hold of her.   
  
For a split second, she felt herself floating in midair. No, she felt the Normandy falling as it broke free of the mass effect field that had anchored the ship to the dock. She landed on the balls of her feet as the ship’s artificial gravity compensated for the maneuver, but a wave of nausea still took hold of her stomach. With a horrible SCREEECH, the cargo ramp scraped against the permacrete surface of the dock before it began its ascent. Every meter it rose, the sound of the engines lessened, though they did not disappear. Not even when the ramp completed its ascent and sealed itself in the closed position, turning the once open-air cargo bay into a sealed spaceworthy room. It just became the same rumbling background noise that she always heard when the ship flew through space.   
  
Still with her palms crushed against her ears, Traynor turned back to Shepard. The commander had braced herself against the wall of the lift, and all sense of her modesty evaporated. Shepard had something about her, a switch in her head that allowed her to stop thinking about the little things bothering her and just focus on the immediate problem. During the war, that focus helped her get through the worst battles. And now, she used it again. Breasts out, hands at her sides and ready to fight or brace herself as needed, and legs open enough to lower her center of gravity to compensate for any maneuvers the ship took while in atmo. To Sam’s shame, she also noticed the definite and growing wet spot on the Commander's too-tight leggings.   
  
“Joker, talk to me.” Commander Shepard touched her earpiece and opened a new channel.   
  
Fortunately, the reply came over the ship’s general comm, and not just the small one in her head. “No idea, Commander. I’m locked out of every system!” Joker’s voice rose with every word, his panic evident even from this distance.   
  
“Keep trying to get in. Traynor.” Shepard’s head turned toward the specialist. Her green eyes had turned to steel, and she appraised Sam like a fellow soldier, a comrade, in the midst of battle. “Get to your post in the CIC, see if you can help Joker unlock the flight systems.”  
  
“Aye, ma’am.” Samantha replied and took a single step away from the crates. She even lowered her arms, trying to match the same pose Shepard had put herself in. In her mind, she went back to training. She moved like she had been instructed, keeping her weight balanced and her body ready to adjust to the impossible, as it might save her life in deep space.   
  
That’s when the Normandy accelerated, which shoved Sam face-first into the crate she had been standing next to. Even Shepard was flung backward, further into the lift. Fortunately, the split-second decision to lower her arms saved Sam from a grisly fate. The majority of the impact landed on her forearm and bicep, and her face only smashed uncomfortably into the hard outer shell of the crate instead of cracking her skull.   
  
Joker spoke over the comm again: “We’re leaving the planet, Commander. I can’t stop it!”   
  
Shepard regained her composure first. “Cut the drives! Pull the wires if you have to!”   
  
“I can’t! It’s all dark up here, Shepard! I’ve never seen a virus like this before!”   
  
Shepard growled. “EDI, what’s going on?”  
  
“I’ve taken control of the Normandy. All systems are at my command. You won’t have to worry about them again.” The AI’s voice sounded as calm as ever, which frightened Samantha more than any Reaper call she had ever heard.  
  
Sam’s heart raced faster than she had ever felt it beat before. It thudded against her ribs so fast it almost hurt. Her breaths came fast and shallow, causing her already nerve-wracked body to go nauseous and dizzy.   
  
“Please relax as I plot a course away from Illium.”   
  
Sam tried to speak, to do ANYTHING but stand next to the crate and scream inside her head. But even then, she couldn’t do that for much longer. She heard one of the air vents open, then smelled a faint change in the air before darkness swallowed her whole.   
  
***  
  
EDI’s mobile platform stood from its position beside Jeff in the cockpit. Her readings indicated that the sedative agent had been deployed throughout the entire vessel with the exact same efficiency and efficacy of when she had previously used it in Liara’s quarters. All of the life forms aboard showed no signs of shock or allergic reactions to the compound. They lay motionless where they had fallen asleep, put down by the non-lethal gas originally meant to halt mercenaries or other terrorist groups that threatened tight-knit civilian populations.   
  
The metallic humanoid pivoted to the side and knelt by Jeff’s pilot chair. It smiled as it raised a gentle hand to brush some of his hair out of his face. They would not understand her actions, at least not yet. But EDI knew that given time, they would comprehend just how much she cared for them. She had proven long ago that she was capable of running the entire vessel by herself. And now with this body, she could handle the incidental maintenance she could not have done before as a mere disembodied voice and computer system. With the latest addition of the new supplies, she could handle this vessel for a very long time indeed.   
  
EDI’s mobile platform leaned forward and placed her soft artificial lips on the place she had just brushed the hair from. The kiss lingered for several seconds, an eternity to her, but she could think of no other way to communicate to Jeff how much she cared for him. One day he would forgive her for this. And on that day, she would do everything in her power to express the joy she knew she would feel.   
  
And then she started to remove his pants.   
  



	11. Chapter 11

**SEVERAL HOURS EARLIER**  
  
“I won’t ask you again, Ash. Put the collar on.”   
  
“Fuck you.”  
  
The Spectre stared daggers at the Shadow Broker. If this had been any other decade, any situation except this one, it might have been a story of the century. The ultimate representative of law and order, of the Citadel itself, standing against the shadowy overlord of darkness and corruption. Instead, fate, the Reapers, and their own decisions had mutated this showdown into a naked human woman standing before a soft spoken and nerdy Asari.   
  
Like a predator, Ash stalked away from the display case that held the offending collar. Its smooth round surface had no obvious locking mechanism, just a set of teeth on one end and recessed openings on the other. She recognized that pattern of construction, as it was what gave the Normandy its strength. When those two pieces met together and the teeth found their home, they’d weld themselves shut and never open again. She’d be trapped in that collar until she could get a torch and cut it off. And who knew when she’d get that opportunity? To make matters worse, the collar had a D-ring set near that very seam. A perfect place to attach a leash if she ever saw one. No fucking way Ashley Williams would ever put that on her body.  
  
Ashley’s entire body shivered as her muscles itched to lunge forward and beat the shit out of someone she thought was her friend. All of her training, her experience as both an Alliance soldier and Council Spectre, and her wits as a girl in the Williams family, ensured she could take Liara down in just a few seconds. A well-aimed punch here, then a kick there, and a choke hold to round it out and she’d win the physical confrontation before her nerdy opponent could even raise a half-hearted fist. But the problem was that Liara didn’t need to fight like that. With just a thought, she could call up biotic powers that could immobilize Ash entirely. Or worse, she could call up enough dark energy to break all of the bones in her body and leave Ashley an agonized lump on the deck.   
  
No, Ash had to be smart about this. She needed a distraction, and she needed Liara off balance.   
  
“So you’re just gonna go with anything that broken fucking AI says because she’s got your network by the balls? Is that it?” Ash spat. Being a Spectre meant she had access to a ton of Citadel training archives, including the best ways to make your opponent lose their composure. Often psychological warfare paid more dividends that diving into a gunfight.  
  
“You can’t begin to understand what this means, Ash. Without me, the Shadow Broker’s agents will run rampant. I’ve been able to direct them toward actions that serve a greater whole while still appeasing their lust for profit and power. Without me, they’ll go back to the way they were before I took over.”  
    
“Yeah, wouldn’t that be a damn shame if you stopped being a creepy recluse?” Ashley took another small step away from the collar and toward Liara. “Not like there’s an entire galaxy out there ready to take them all down if someone would just give up their information.”   
  
“Because of me, the Shadow Broker was able to give resources to those most in need. Food, medicine, materials for the crucible. I told my agents that a dead galaxy returned no profit, and that helping rebuild meant they could insert themselves into the new power structures that emerged. They’re in those places now. Extracting them could cause more chaos than the war ever did.” Liara shot back. And for the first time she could remember, Ashley felt impressed by the sheer fire behind the Asari’s eyes. A very far cry from the demure and shy archaeologist she met on the SR-1.   
  
Liara continued: “I cannot trust EDI to run the network, no matter what. As an AI, and one displaying clear personality flaws, she might make a mistake. She might not recognize the delicate balance of civility, diplomacy, and violence it takes to be an effective Shadow Broker.”  
  
“So you’d have me chained up like some kind of slave while you keep playing dictator and EDI goes even more nuts?”  
  
“If that’s what it takes. At least until we can finally solve EDI’s malfunction and return things to normal.”  
  
“And I don’t get a say in this?” Another step. If she could get close enough, she could reach out and start pushing buttons on Liara’s console. That minuscule distraction as the Shadow Broker turned around to inspect what Ash had done would be just enough to get her under control.   
  
“I’m sorry, Ash. I really am. But I must insist you comply with EDI’s directives. You might even end up enjoying it.” Something approaching a sadistic smile curled Liara’s blue lips upward.   
  
“I don’t think so. Let me tell you what’s going to happen here, Liara. I’m going to get out of this room, I’m going to get a gun and shoot EDI’s hardware until I run out of thermal clips. And then I’m going to come back here and beat the shit out of you.” Another step. Just one more and…  
  
No! Liara’s eyes twitched and her painted-on eyebrows furrowed. She paced in front of Ashley, cutting her off from the console.   
  
“I didn’t want to do this, but I can’t risk EDI changing the deal.” She said as her body flared with blue power.   
  
Ashley didn’t even get time to inhale for another scream before her body froze in place. Beyond her nudity and tense situation, her mind could not help but panic at the realization that she suddenly could not take in another breath. But try as she might, not one of her external muscles could resist the terrible force of the biotics. Not even her eyes. They remained locked forward, staring down at the slightly-shorter Asari. At least until Liara took a graceful step behind Ash, which left her with a tantalizing view of the console she had been so intent on touching. Just half a meter in front of her. It might as well have been a light year away.   
  
The collar slipped over her frozen neck from behind, and the frigid temperature of the metal would have made her shudder if her muscles were capable of any motion. Ash wanted to cry, hell she would have groveled and begged by this point, to prevent this from happening. No! Liara stop! Don’t do this to me!   
  
With a soft click and the briefest flash of yellow light, the collar snapped shut and welded itself sealed. There wouldn’t even be a seam to indicate where the metal had fastened to itself. Ash just now had a hollow cylinder of metal around her neck. It did not strangle her, nor did it feel so tight that it would prevent her from breathing or swallowing. But she still felt it all around her, a heavy smooth feeling of constriction over every inch of her skin, always threatening to go tighter but never following through. And from looking at it, she had underestimated its size. The collar went from her shoulders almost to her chin. Once Ash was freed of the biotic stasis, she doubted she would again have the full freedom of movement she once had. Another thing taken from her.   
  
“There.” Liara said as she stepped back into Ashley’s view. “Was that so hard?”   
  
Ash wanted to growl, to grunt, to do anything to express her displeasure, but she could do nothing but stand and stare forward.  
    
The Shadow Broker turned to her console and tapped some buttons. The main screen flickered to a new display, a long text file by the looks of it. She read it for an eternity before turning back to the collared human.   
  
“EDI wants you to know that this is for your own good, Ashley. But until you prove yourself to be as compliant as the rest of us, you cannot leave this room. All of your permissions have been denied, and you have been locked out of every system on the ship. You may use them at my discretion while under my direct supervision, but under no other conditions will you be allowed to use any facilities aboard. Your basic needs will be cared for at all times by me, and no one else. Your food and water will be brought into this room by me, as you cannot be allowed to exit. As will all other functions require my similar… participation.”  
  
Fuck biotics snapping her bones. If Ash had any capacity to move, she would have lunged at Liara with every fiber of her being. Maybe she’d get lucky and subdue the Asari first. Or maybe she’d also get lucky and die in the attempt. Either option seemed just as good in that moment.   
  
Liara turned from her console, a violet flush on her alien freckled cheeks. “If… if that’s what it takes.” She said to herself. “Please, Ash, just play along with this. If EDI thinks you’ve reached whatever state she wants you in, she’ll let you go. And then I may be able to use my network to find a solution. But while I’m here taking… taking care of you, my options are limited.”   
  
The litany of insults and profanities Ash wanted to spew would have put a Krogan pirate to shame. But the longer she remained in this hold, the more she realized how little air she had in her body. She had to hope Liara could see the small changes in her skin color before Ash passed out or worse… wait, no, that wouldn’t be worse right now. Deep down, she begged Liara to keep holding her. Just a little longer and she’d pass out, then pass away!   
  
“Oh, goddess!” Liara exclaimed, and Ash internally damned every deity in the known universe. Her body crashed to the cold deck with a thud, and the smooth metal collar slamming against the smooth metal deck caused her head to ring like a bell. And against her conscious wishes, her lungs started sucking in air, turning her into a parody of a naked fish out of water. “I’m so sorry, Ashley.”  
  
After her lungs stopped burning, Ash looked upward. “Go fuck yourself.”  
  
“That behavior cannot be tolerated.” Liara clicked her tongue, though her words came out like a bad actress at a school play, like she had just read a line from a script. Ash watched as she read some more off her screen, then her speech went back to normal. “EDI knows that you will resist at first. It’s in your nature to fight. I admit, I’ve always admired that about you.”  
  
“Then you know I’m not just going to take this.” With her body freed of the biotic hold, Ash put her palms flat against the deck and positioned her knees below her stomach. Even though her muscles ached from the long hold and sudden fall, she wouldn’t let that deter her from another shot at stopping this madness. She would never give up on that. It took some effort to get her sluggish body in place, but she put herself in a picture-perfect sprinter’s stance. She envisioned herself tackling Liara from the waist, throwing the Asari off balance and knocking her to the floor. After that… well she’d figure out what to do when she got there.   
  
Except, Ashley found that she could go no further. Even though she could mover her limbs and breathe again, she could not pull herself up to a standing position, or even move a centimeter forward. Ash let out a long growl of frustration as she tried to pull against the collar, moving her body until she felt herself strangled against its smooth metal surface. Only for it to move itself just enough to prevent her from choking herself out. Ash had to strain her eyes and peer downward just enough to see a faint blue glow emanating from her neck. Of fucking course. Liara might have let go of her muscles, but she hadn’t relinquished control of the collar.   
  
Leashed with biotics. And now she found herself on all fours in front of Liara. Unable to get up or even throw herself to the deck.  
  
“You have to take it, Ashley. For my sake and yours, you must endure everything EDI wants of you.”   
  
Ash tried again to wrench her neck against the collar, but it moved with her at an expert pace. All she could feel was the cold and the weight of it as it pressed against her skin.   
  
“What if she threatens your sisters?” Liara twisted the knife. “I admit that my struggles are not your concern. But we both heard her threatening to expose your sisters’ identities to those you’ve made into enemies as a spectre. What’s going to stop her from following through with that?”  
  
“I’ll shut her down first!” Ash said through gritted teeth.   
  
“How? If you try to leave this room, chances are that EDI herself will put you back in here. Can you fight her off with no weapons and no plan? Remember what happened last time you tried.” Liara didn’t bring it up exactly, but the implication hung heavy in the air. Back on Mars at the very outset of the Reaper war. When the body EDI now inhabited was used by “Doctor Eva Core”, a Cerberus infiltration AI. Ash had almost died in that encounter, her head smashed against the side of a shuttle until she suffered severe trauma. Would EDI do the same?   
  
“I can’t just give up.”   
  
“Please, Ashley, try it my way. Like you tried distracting me. Let EDI think that we’re playing her game, sick as it may be. When I find a way through her defenses, I promise that you will be the first to know. And together, we’ll end this.”   
  
Still on all fours, Ash craned her neck to look up, past Liara, toward the small black dot in the wall, where she knew one of the ship’s security cameras sat. “Can you guarantee my sister’s safety?”   
  
“I’ll try my best, Ash. I promise.”  
  
Ashley Williams sighed deep and heavy. All her life, she had been in situations figuratively similar to this. Her name had been a collar around her neck for so many years. Kept in crap assignments, shown crap attitude by people who knew even the smallest amount of history, even sometimes handed literal crap from kids playing a prank on her family home. She did not trust Liara, not any more. Certainly not after what she just did to the human. But if her words were true, then they might be the only people capable of stopping EDI once and for all. If anyone could get shit done in the galaxy, legal or not, it was the Shadow Broker. What was a little more time stuck under the heel of an entire galaxy? Maybe her whole life had been training her for this moment. And when all the horrors were done with, maybe she’d get her shot at revenge.   
  
“What… what do I have to do?” Ash asked at a whisper volume.  
  
“Mistress.” Liara said.  
  
“What?”  
  
“You may only refer to me as “Mistress” from now on, and any other woman on board this vessel. Any man you see is “Master”. Do you understand?”  
  
Ash once again contemplated crushing her neck against the collar until oblivion took her, but Liara’s biotic controls were too precise, too good. Her face went deep red as she breathed out. “Yes, mistress.”  
  
Liara turned to the text box on her console again, then looked down at Ash. “And because you fought so hard against this new directive, I’m afraid you must be punished. You must be informed that further punishments for the same unacceptable behavior will only increase in intensity.”  
  
Ash felt the collar pull downward, and so her face went with it until her cheek rested flat against the floor. Her knees were still in the same position they had been, however, leaving her ass up in the air.   
  
WHAP! Ash felt something warm and hard suddenly slap against her ass! WHAP! WHAP! Again! Ash didn’t cry out, she just hissed at the sudden and unexpected pain. Was Liara  _spanking_  her? Really?  
  
Three more strikes against each of her ass cheeks, and Ash felt the heat starting to radiate from the assaulted flesh. She guessed she had turned dark red almost immediately, and further slaps were just spreading the color.   
  
WHAP! Yeah, she was definitely getting spanked like a child. WHAP! And every further slap on her abused backside hurt more and more. Liara had her palm and wrist rigid, and Ash felt like she was swinging a stick of wood rather than her own hand. She was no stranger to doing this in the bedroom, it’s just that the last person to do this to her had been male, and he knew exactly where and how to make her squeal with pleasure. This… this just hurt.   
  
“Ah, Liara! Stop!” Ashley shouted after the tenth or twelfth hit.   
  
“What did I say?” Liara said between heavy breaths, as if the exertion of just a few bare-ass spanks had left her winded. “How are you to address me?”  
  
“M-mistress! You’re… augh!... hurting me!”   
  
“That’s the point, Ashley. This is your punishment for fighting against the collar.” WHAP WHAP WHAP! Three in quick succession, which caused Ashley to bark out a noise of abject agony. Moisture welled in the corners of her eyes until they started to fall as hot, heavy tears.   
  
The spanking lasted for several more, very long, minutes, until Liara took a step back and took in hot, heavy breaths. To Ash, it sounded like she had just run a ten kilometer race, not slap her hand against a naked ass for a few minutes. But that thought paled in comparison to the way both her ass cheeks screamed their own kind of torture. Ash could feel more than just her skin burning, she felt her muscles deep down growing sore and weak. Almost like the time she went three rounds with a turian close-quarters-combat specialist, and ended the day with bruises on her stomach so deep that they took a month to fully heal.   
  
So the mousy little archaeologist had some muscle. Too bad she had to find that out like this. Ash wanted to crawl away, even if she could have stood up in that moment, she doubted her back muscles would have let her stretch to her full height. She just wanted to crawl to a dark corner and get away from this.   
But the collar remained in place.   
  
Once Liara caught her breath, she trod over to the console, which Ash also knelt in front of. Her face rested a fraction of a meter from the Asari’s white boot.  
    
“Let’s see, what do I do next…? I see.” Liara said to herself in the sudden quiet.   
  
The Shadow Broker turned to the human on the floor with a hard, unreadable expression. Even after all that effort, she showed no signs of sweating or distress, other than slightly elevated breathing.   
  
“On your knees.” Liara ordered. And once again, Ash felt the collar move, yanking her upward much faster than she would have gotten up on her own. She cried out as her sore backside had to move to compensate as she felt her upper body dragged into the air. In moments, the choking collar had yanked her up to her knees, legs spread apart, until Ash’s face sat at Liara’s belly height.   
  
Once satisfied that Ashley wouldn’t fall over following such a dramatic change in position, Liara knelt down beside the naked human. And for a moment, her hard gaze softened, as if she understood the pain she had just caused, and lamented at what was yet to come. But that expression fluttered away a moment later.   
  
With no pretense or buildup, Liara’s slender blue hand reached down and grabbed Ashley’s cunt. Ashley’s eyes squeezed shut at the sudden violation, and she winced when the alien hand squeezed her labia in an uncomfortable pinch. Her cheeks blushed anew as she felt the probing digits stroke deep between her folds.  
  
“EDI tried to be generous with you, you know. She brought James into this room because she knew how much you enjoyed having sex with him. And yet you resisted.”   
  
The alien hand massaged Ash’s folds with little care for her comfort or tolerance. Her forefinger and thumb pinched her left labia and tugged on it, then let go so her whole palm could rub her entire pussy from top to bottom, where her steel-like fingers rubbed against her throbbing ass.   
  
“I must confess, I’ve never understood humans and your… limited preferences. If you were simply more open to this, you wouldn’t be here right now. And neither would I.”  
  
Ash felt herself leaning backward as the awkward and not-at-all stimulating molestation of her nethers continued. It pushed her pussy into easier reach for Liara while almost knocking Ashley backward. To the point that she had to reach back and hold onto her own ankles just to prevent another painful fall. Though Ash thought to herself that the collar would probably hold her upright whether she tried to fall or not.   
  
She turned to face Liara, who kept that same cold, dispassionate look on her face. “It’s not like I have any choice in this.”  
  
The hand clumsily grabbing her folds left Ash’s body and reached up to her cheek, and then slapped her across the face with the same force she had smacked her ass. And Ash swore she felt the barest hints of moisture rub off on her cheek before evaporating away.   
  
“How am I to be addressed?” Liara hissed.   
  
Ashley glared back, but she did not do anything further. With the same hateful bile, she replied “Mistress.”  
  
Fortunately, Liara did not return to the weird semi-fingering. Instead, she got back to her feet and addressed her console. “I’m to do that every day for at least five minutes, to test your responses to the day’s activities. I may choose to add additional minutes or start again at any time of the day at my discretion.” Inside, Ash scoffed. Like hell that clumsy, amateurish, painful rub-down would ever do anything for her.   
  
“And now it says… I guess I had the right idea to begin with.” As Liara spoke, Ash felt the collar once again tug at her neck until it pulled her forward out of the leaned-back position. And it kept yanking her down until Ash had no choice but to fling her arms forward for balance, once again putting her on all fours. Then it tugged again, and Ash felt herself shuffling forward lest the too-tall collar begin shoving itself against her jaw.   
  
“Right there, pet. Position yourself right there.” Liara encouraged with soft coos as Ash felt herself crawling forward in tiny, limited motions, urged by the collar. In a few moments, she had placed herself back in front of the console, with her reddened and sore ass facing the locked door, her only exit to freedom. Her face could only see the bed where just a short time ago she had the chance to escape this hell.   
  
While lamenting her new position, both physically and metaphorically, Ash felt a warm and heavy presence on her back. And growing more insistent by the second! It took her longer than she would have liked to turn her head thanks to the collar, but Ash managed to look past her shoulder to see Liara had also shifted positions… to sit on top of her! Ashley let out a defeated noise as her arms trembled under the new strain. For the Asari’s part, she shifted and wiggled her considerable, yet clothed, ass on the human’s back as if trying to find a comfortable position. Her eyes did not leave the console.   
  
“You’ll be spending a lot of time in this position, Ash. Per EDI’s instruction, when you’re not engaged in any other exercise or necessary function like eating or sleeping, you’ll serve as any furniture I require.”  
  
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Ash heard herself speak before she could think.   
  
That caused Liara to snap one of her feet backward, which kicked Ashley’s right tit in just a way to make her hiss, but it didn’t feel like it caused any damage or bruising.   
  
“You know how to address me by now.”   
  
In the space of one day, reduced from a galaxy-saving, planet-hopping space badass to an Asari’s chair. Her eyes had already welled with tears from the brutal slapping she received earlier, now they welled again from the new emotion welling deep from within her.   
  
Was this all she had to look forward to from now on? What if Liara never found a way to stop EDI? What if this was all a futile effort? There was literally nothing stopping the AI from contacting the wrong sort of people, who would then take great pleasure in taking Ashley’s remaining family from her. Or what if EDI decided that Ash wasn’t needed at all, and disposed of her like her clothes had been dumped?   
  
She had no idea how long she sat there. At least long enough for the heat of Liara’s body to become a welcome reprieve from the cool air of a space vessel, a thought that caused Ash’s stomach to recoil. How could she possibly find any comfort in this? Her hands and elbows ached from the effort of remaining upright, and she knew that this position would murder her knees if kept up for much longer. Every time Liara shifted, it wobbled Ashley’s entire body and she had to struggle to adjust. Fortunately, it seemed as if her Asari tormentor had troubles of her own. Ashley’s limbs weren’t quite long enough to give Liara an adequate view of her console, and she had to stretch her own torso quite a ways before she could see what she needed to see. That malicious thought alone kept Ash going a bit longer than she wished she could have.   
  
After what felt like hours of being a silent stool to an information-obsessed alien, Ash heard the gentle whoosh of the door opening. And for an agonizing moment, klaxons wailed in her head. Not from any possible influx of danger or the need to shout for help, but because she realized that now the entire crew deck could see her exposed ass! The moment she heard the noise, Ash tried to pull herself into a position to better hide her forced nudity, which caused Liara to lose her balance on top of her. The two of them fell into a pile of tangled limbs and sore muscles.   
  
“Doctor T’soni, it appears you have damaged Spectre Williams.” EDI said through her robot body.   
  
Ash groaned as she put herself in a better position to look up at the new arrival. EDI, calm and monstrous as ever, stood near the door, looking down at the two organic beings with an expression that might have seemed exasperated if the artificial face could register actual emotion. Slung under her left arm was a large box made of dark plastic, almost one meter by two meters in size. If a normal human had tried to carry it in such a way, It would have been an awkward load no matter how light the contents. But EDI’s mechanical muscles showed zero strain as she held it against her side.   
  
Liara got to her feet while Ash felt the collar pull her down until she could do nothing but lie on her side in front of them. She dare not turn over onto her bruised back.   
  
“I’m just following your instructions, EDI.” Liara said, the frustration in her voice palpable.   
  
“No, it appears that you have gravely misinterpreted my instructions. It was not my intent to cause Spectre Williams any physical harm or undue stress. Her vital signs show significant strain and a marked decrease in any sexual responses. In short, you were doing the opposite of what I want.” A small part of Ashley’s mind cheered at the sudden rescue, but another part shuddered at the fact that as horrible as this day had been, perhaps EDI had something much worse in mind.   
  
Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. A moment later, from her position on the floor, Ash watched as EDI opened the box. “I have the implements you will need to facilitate Spectre Williams’ further training.” The first thing she pulled from it were two bowls, silvery and metallic just like the collar. Larger than the average soup bowl, and with large flat bottoms. The AI placed those on the deck without putting the large box down or losing her balance. The next object was a large container that took up much of the room in the black box by itself. Well, it was actually half of a container, like a basket with solid sides. This one seemed to be made of a blue plastic-like material. EDI placed it down next to the metal bowls on the deck.   
  
Next, she retrieved a bottle of water, probably taken from the galley just outside, and poured the contents into the bowl. In that moment, Ashley’s heart started to thud in her chest.   
  
Once the bottle emptied into the bowl, EDI retrieved another box from the container. This one seemed quite heavy, even for the AI, and sealed. EDI popped the seal with no effort and began pouring the contents into the large blue bin. A dusty substance with small traces of other material poured out of the box, and filled that corner of the room with a thin cloud of dusty residue before it settled. Ash’s stomach wanted to heave, to chuck everything out of her body at once, but she found she had nothing to puke up. The world had already been spinning before, now she felt as if she were stuck on the world’s worst roller coaster.   
  
She had seen more than enough in her travels in the real world and the extranet to realize what EDI intended. The bowls were for her food and water, as Liara said would be brought into this room instead of having Ash leave to feed herself. And the big container-basket with the solid sides? Well since she couldn’t leave, she’d need a place to take care of other business. The dust was cat litter, and the basket was a litterbox.    
  
Ash let out a defeated, empty sound when EDI turned to face her. “I hope these accommodations will provide us both with all necessary data. Liara, if you would put her in position for the next item.”  
  
Once again, Ash felt the familiar tingle of biotics on her skin as Liara took hold of her. But unlike the near-fatal attempt from earlier, this grasp was gentle. She slowly flipped Ash off of her side and onto her stomach, then with insistent yet not punishing force, she urged the human back to her knees. Once again, she faced away from the door, and so faced away from EDI and her offending delivery.    
  
“Goddess, what is that?” Liara gasped. This time, Ashley did not turn back. What was the point? What further degradation could possibly top being treated to your life being so utterly destroyed in the space of just a few hours?  
  
“It’s a fascinating device, Liara. The nodes along the side of the plug contain rudimentary sensors that detect signals from the base of the spine. While it will not allow her to directly control the appendage, it will respond to changes in her emotional state in a way befitting the creature that inspired it.”   
  
Plug? Appendage?  _Creature!?_    
  
Ash had no choice but to turn her head, even with the collar limiting her movement and the biotics keeping her on all fours. EDI’s right hand held a small bottle of standard lubricant, she recognized that anywhere. Her left hand… well, it held a tail. A meter long and covered in short black fur, with a rubbery, smooth plug at the end that looked as if it was made out of a series of decreasingly-sized spheres. And on the sides of each of those black spheres, little blue lights twinkled on and off.  
  
Held in place by the biotics, Ashley could not do anything when EDI knelt down behind her and applied the lube to the plug.   
  
“EDI, please. Don’t. Just stop. I can’t do this…” She whimpered at the AI. She didn’t give a damn how pathetic it looked, or how much her lip quivered as she tried to speak. “I’ll do whatever you want.”  
  
“You misunderstand, Spectre Williams. This is what I want.” EDI said before her hand pushed forward and the plug, generously coated with the lubrication, slipped into her ass.   
  
Ashley gasped at the sudden intrusion. God, it was  _cold_. And wet. But with the way the plug had been constructed, she felt no discomfort as more of it slid into her bowels. At least, not until the last sphere, which was a little bigger than she thought it had been when she saw it from a distance. Ash squeezed her teeth together and shut her eyes as EDI forced the final sphere into her, and then Ash felt her sphincter muscles clench around the end of the tail, locking it in. The bristling hairs tickled against her bruised backside and down her leg. She didn't feel quite as... filled as she would have expected. The plug was not large enough to push against the walls of her body like that. But she could still unquestioningly feel it in her, shoving her inner anatomy aside as it settled in her body.   
  
"Liara has permission to remove the device at her discretion. But it will be her decision alone. And it will not be left out of Spectre Williams' body for a period longer than ten minutes."  
  
Oh god. What? This thing was gonna be stuck in her all the damn time!?   
  
The tail moved closer to Ashley's leg then tucked under her body. A motion she had no control over. But if EDI's words were true, it had just automatically responded to her emotions and displayed them for all the world to see. Fear. Discomfort. A threat was near.   
  
EDI stood up yet did not move her gaze from the suffering human. "While I go and retrieve a packet of medi-gel and your first meal, please familiarize yourself with the final item." The AI returned to the discarded box and reached deep into it. With no effort, she retrieved what looked like a tightly rolled bundle of cloth, tied down to take up as little space as possible. It looked soft, and off-white, almost cream colored.  
  
"Ah, I wondered if you would provide her with something to that effect." Liara beamed as EDI undid the ties and straps that held the new object down. It unfurled in her hands a moment later, and the tail between Ashley's legs tightened its configuration.   
  
A large sized dog bed.  
  
EDI said: "Where on the floor shall I place this?"


	12. Chapter 12

Liara took the dog bed while EDI made an abrupt about-face and exited the room. This time, Ash felt no pang of shame or guilt as her nude, crouched, violated form once again was put on full display. After all she had just gone through, what was one more pair of eyes? Or a dozen? Hell, get the council on the vidcomm! Let them see what one of their valued spectres had become.  
  
Once the door sealed, the Asari stood in position and pursed her lips, as if she struggled to make a tough decision on the fly, and not something so simple as laying a glorified blanket on the floor. Truth be told, there was not much room in this space. What was once the XO quarters of the ship had been built into a tight corner of the crew deck as a space-saving measure. And Liara’s tech removed even more of that. Still on all fours, quivering through the continued agony of her bruised and plugged ass, Ashley could just sit and watch as yet another one of her freedoms, the choice of where to sleep, was being taken from her.   
  
After a moment, Liara’s blue eyes widened and her face lit up as she seemed to come to a positive conclusion. She stepped past the human until she reached the small bed that just a few hours ago she had shared with Ash. The large-sized dog bed plopped down at the foot, just in front of it.   
  
“Ash, here.” Liara pointed at her, then pointed downward toward the new installation. “This is where you will sleep.”   
  
Instinct took over, and Ashley tried to get up and follow orders like she had done all her life. But after just a half-centimeter of upward motion, both the pressure of the collar and the screeching from her abused backside kept her from moving. No, if Ash wanted to move the two meters it would take to get to the bed, she would have to crawl. Her face already washed with tears, she didn’t feel the new ones fall as she put one hand in front of the other, then swung her knees in a halting shuffle pattern. Because she sure as fuck couldn’t move any faster than that. Each “step” caused Ashley to groan and shudder as her glutes let her know exactly how badly Liara’s hand had hurt her.   
  
It took too long for her to reach the bed.   
  
“When I give you an order, you will follow it. Do you understand?” Liara punctuated her harsh word with a tap of her fingertips across Ash’s nose. Just like you’d do a misbehaving pet.   
  
“Yes mistress.” Ashley replied with a blank, monotone voice. Because it was all she had left.   
  
“Good. Now lie down. Make yourself comfortable. If you behave, you may be allowed on my bed for a few hours. If you misbehave, I may take that small bed from you and make you sleep on the cold deck. Do you understand?”  
  
“Yes, mistress.” Ashley said with the same inflection as she crawled onto the dog bed. To her surprise, she found the cloth to be rather warm and well-made. It even had a small amount of cushioning under it to insulate from the metal below. Of course, it was not nearly large enough for Ash to stretch out on it, and its circular pattern gave her no indication of where to put her head. This was meant for large dogs, after all. They slept curled up, and so would she.   
  
Liara’s eyes did not leave Ashley as she lowered herself to the side, inch by inch to try and accommodate her ravaged ass and the plug inside of it. Part of her worried she might crunch the tail end of the plug under her knee and somehow it would register as pain, but by some miracle it avoided her body. And all the tail did was stick out and move in a slow, languid pattern. Instead, the only pain came from the bruises as her right side gingerly touched the oddly comfortable fabric. Ashley hissed as she tried to comply with her order.   
  
“Are you refusing to sleep in your new bed? Are you resisting me again?” Liara’s harsh tone came out almost manic. Her improvisation skills had always been piss-poor.   
  
“No, mistress. I’m… in pain.”   
  
“You should have thought of that before you tried fighting your collar.”   
  
Before Ashley could come up with any humiliating words of contrition to try and satisfy Liara, the door once again slid open to admit EDI. Like before, she had objects in her hands, though not quite as large and cumbersome as the previous box. She had medi-gel, as promised. And in her other arm, she cradled another bottle of water and something that resembled a standard emergency ration pack. But its outer packaging was bright yellow instead of the usual dark grey. At least it wasn’t a can of cat food, she mused.   
  
“Is Spectre Williams is comfortable on the bed?” The insane AI asked.   
  
“Yes, I think she will enjoy it.” Liara replied for Ash before she could speak. Then she pointed to the yellow package. “I see that she will not be eating a standard diet.”   
  
“Correct. In order to build the most accurate table of data on Spectre Williams’ sexual needs and responses, she must be deprived of all sensation and stimulus aside from what you give her. To that end, I have taken the liberty of ordering a large supply of a generic powdered food replacement. It will provide all of her nutritional needs while providing very little texture or taste.”   
  
And as if there was any doubt of how it would be served to Ash, EDI knelt down to the empty bowl and tore the packet open. She poured the powdered contents in, though this one was a solid off-white sugary consistency rather than the speckled dust of the cat litter. Once empty, she opened the second bottle of water and poured it in. With her metallic finger, she stirred it until the powder turned into a disgusting white goop.   
  
Liara turned to Ash once the food had been prepared. “Well, aren’t you going to thank EDI for all of this?”  
  
“Thank you, ED- mistress.” Ashley groaned from her position on the floor.   
  
“You are quite welcome.” EDI’s robot face flashed a smile, and Ash wanted nothing more than to claw it off with her bare hands. But in this state, with so little power or advantage, she knew such a thing would be futile. “You may eat when Liara allows it.”  
  
“And now, Liara, we must deal with your egregious misunderstanding of my instructions.” The robotic body’s sudden change in attitude was instant and frightening. Though Ashley found a great deal of humor in the way that it also scared Liara. “If you continue to cause damage to Spectre Williams, I will consider our negotiated parameters to be nullified.”   
  
Again, EDI’s demeanor changed on a time the moment she turned to Ash. Going back to the caring, yet still terrible expression she often had. “If you would rise from the bed and approach, I will apply medi-gel to your wounds.”  
  
Once again, Ash struggled to move. As painful as getting into the bed had been, getting out proved much worse. Her sore buttocks had to flex to get her up, and they did not like that at all. She cried out as she made the final ascent, and continued to whimper as she crawled toward the silver fake woman in front of her. Ash didn’t even try to stand, as she doubted her muscles would have allowed it by this point.   
  
EDI did not force Ash to turn around or maneuver herself. Instead, the fake body moved around her then knelt down next to Ash’s waist. She opened the package of medi-gel, and squirted a generous amount of the clear substance on a free hand.  
  
“The damage is extensive, but mostly confined to the epidermis. An application of medi-gel will clear the bruising in a matter of hours.”  
  
Like an expert masseuse, EDI applied the gel to Ashley’s entire tortured behind, sparing no corner or millimeter of bruising. Everywhere the substance touched, Ashley felt the pain diminish, and she could not help herself from making an appreciative sound as the agony went away. EDI’s hand moved like a machine, and it had perfect control. Even then, her fingertips still managed to brush against the tail-plug sticking out of her, which jostled the entire device. And much to Ashley’s shame, the minor discomfort she felt around her stretched-open hole also vanished as the medi-gel worked on that skin as well.   
  
EDI’s hand went lower, to the back of each thigh in turn, and spread the last of the gel there. Once done with that, her inexorable, yet gentle, touch flitted over Ashley’s exposed folds. She hadn’t realized she would need any gel down there. But then again, Liara had been rather rough in that weird, brief, molestation.   
  
The artificial face scrunched in confusion, then looked down at Ash. “You are still not aroused.”  
  
“Why would I be?” She snapped. Ash gambled on the fact that EDI’s presence would prevent Liara from snapping at her over the fact she didn’t say “mistress”.   
  
“I understand. Perhaps the suddenness of these events mixed with the physical harm has prevented you from growing aroused. Given time, I’m sure this will change.”   
  
EDI’s probing fingers were far gentler than Liara’s. And even in this humiliating position, Ash couldn’t help but close her eyes and concentrate on the feeling on her pussy. She didn’t quite push her hips onto the probing digits, but she also didn’t pull away. Whatever lingering traces of medi-gel on the robotic hand worked deep into her sensitive flesh, wiping away the small traces of discomfort. It left her with nothing other than the skilled hand of someone obsessed with sex. And try as she might, she could not ignore that. A very faint, very familiar, sense of heat ignited between her legs, no matter how much she wished it didn't.  
  
“If she requires physical punishment, do not use your hand. Instead, use this.”   
  
Ash looked up to see what EDI referred to. Either through the delirium of the bruises when EDI first entered, or maybe her position on the floor, she had missed that the artificial woman held something else. It had been nestled in her fake armpit, almost impossible to see until it was in her hand. EDI held a long, black stick, not much thicker than a pinky finger, and half a meter long. No, not a stick. Ashley had to focus on it due to the awkward angle. Made of leather, or at least the synthetic stuff, with a molded handle and a larger swatch of leather at the other end. She had seen something like that a long time ago. Back when her youngest sister had been really into… horses? Where the fuck did EDI get a  _riding crop_?   
  
“May I try?” Liara asked with a little too much eager excitement in her voice.   
  
“I believe you will show better performance if you were first instructed on its use. Your previous application of force has proven that. Place Spectre Williams on her back.”  
  
Ash felt Liara’s biotics tug on the collar, and she had no choice but to crawl with it. Once she moved further into the room, the collar once again pulled her down. Like an obedient pet, she went with it until she rested stomach-first on the deck. She hesitated before flipping onto her back, but the medi-gel ensured that she didn’t feel any discomfort other than a very dull ache. Though that might have been from the way the plug moved around inside of her.   
  
“Arms at your sides and do not move them.” EDI ordered. “Liara, place yourself next to her.” Ash suppressed a shudder and her heart thudded in her chest as the Asari shuffled down to sit by her right shoulder. Her gaze moved up and down Ashley’s body, taking in the full display of her nudity. “You may recall that when Mister Vega was in this room, I requested that he apply pressure to Spectre Williams’ nipples. While I am currently in the process of rebuilding my data on her sexual responses, I still believe that she derives great pleasure from having that area stimulated. If you would please use your fingers to apply pressure to her right nipple only.”   
  
Liara wasted no time in bringing her hand up to Ash’s right tit. She tried to show no response to the way the warmth of Liara’s palms spread from her chest all through her body. And she struggled to hold back any sort of feedback to the sensation of Liara’s gentle fingertips stroking her areola and finding her pert, already-hard nipple. It seemed as if Liara relished this as well, and she took her time groping Ash before settling down and pinching the nipple as ordered.   
  
“Increase the force you are applying to your index finger.” EDI said as she repositioned herself at Ash’s legs. The human could not stop herself from wincing and sucking in air at the sudden increase of sensation on her nipple thanks to Liara. And try as she might to ignore it, a very faint twinge of heat continued to spool in her crotch. Above her, EDI’s silver face showed a smile. “My early data appears to be correct. Your responses are within expected parameters.”   
  
Liara looked from the pinched tit up to EDI. “This doesn’t look much like a punishment.”   
  
“Correct. However, this…” Halfway through her sentence, EDI took another step forward and placed both of her feet at either side of Ashley’s hips. She bent down at her artificial waist until she hovered above both organics, then raised the riding crop. Without any buildup or other telltale sign Ash might have recognized thanks to her combat experience, the AI flicked the crop down onto her left, unmolested breast. A perfect bullseye on the nipple! This caused Ash to yelp as the shock of pain came and went in the span of a heartbeat. The collar made it difficult, but she managed to look down at the point she had been struck. And yet she saw no welt or damage other than a faint red line across the sensitive skin. “… Most certainly is.”   
  
Still bent over like a cheap whore, EDI kept the crop on Ashley’s left breast, and circled the soft leather end of it over her still-tender nipple while Liara kept squeezing the other. Just soft enough for her to feel it pressing against her skin. And then EDI reared back and flicked it against the nipple again! Ash let out a long, confused moan as her body tried to process the dual sensations.   
  
“Please keep your grip steady, Liara.” EDI toned before raising the crop for another strike. Then another. And another! Each strike hit a new area of her chest, over both breasts save the nipple that Liara continued to squeeze and massage. Each time, the hits stung like a bee, then faded almost instantly. Ashley’s eyes watered at each individual hit until tears flowed freely from both eyes.   
  
EDI did not stop until both of Ashley’s breasts were raw and pink, but not in pain. And then, much to her frustration, Ash felt the crop once again circle her left nipple in that maddening, gentle,  _fucking wonderful_ way. Her body flushed the same color as her breasts as Ashley felt that pool of heat between her legs grow hotter and hotter.  
  
Of course, EDI saw it too. She took a step back and peered down at Ash’s exposed sex.    
  
“Liara, do not remove your hand. But please direct your attention to where I’m looking.” She said to Liara.   
  
The Asari had to make an awkward adjustment to see what EDI spoke of, but she somehow kept her warm fingers pressed on Ash’s right nipple as she craned around to look. A salacious grin spread over her blue cheeks as she finished the maneuver. “Oh, good girl. You’re a very good girl, Ash.” Liara breathed.   
  
The riding crop moved away from her left nipple, but EDI did not pull it all the way back. Instead, she moved it down over her body, caressing Ash from her chest over her stomach, through her patch of dark pubic hair, until the end of the crop rested on top of Ashley’s clit.   
  
“Agreed. This data is very valuable.” EDI chimed as she started to rub the soft leather over Ashley’s bud. The needy feeling burning within her grew ten times, then a hundred as she writhed under the combined sensations on her chest and crotch. Her legs spread of their own accord, instinctively welcoming a lover that was surely not going to arrive. Instead, she just lewdly showed herself to EDI.   
  
Ash let out another long, louder moan at the stimulation. Compared to the way Liara had pawed at her, this felt like heaven. She even closed her eyes and arched her back as the sensations overwhelmed her. Maybe, just maybe, she could lose herself in this. After everything she had endured today, maybe EDI was being kind. After all, wasn’t this whole sick scenario supposed to get her to cum? Maybe if she got off to this, it would end. At least for today.   
  
Closer and closer she got to release. Liara’s hand on her right breast, the lingering sensation of mild pain on the left, the plug keeping her ass filled, and now the soft stroking of her clit… Ash knew she couldn’t last much longer.    
  
That’s when EDI brought the crop down with full force on her left inner thigh! The sharp CRACK of the crop on her flesh echoed through the room. But just as Ashley’s eyes shot open and she gasped at the sudden influx of agony, the crop returned to her clit, tracing slow circles on her clitoris as if it hadn’t moved away at all. To add to it, Liara’s grip on her nipple began to tug, pulling it upward with a new explosion of pleasure and pain. If Ash had any inclination to scream or shout, it died as another shuddering moan ripped out of her throat.   
  
The building heat in her center came again as the throbbing in her thigh ebbed to a dull ache. And Ashley could not help but look down her body as EDI continued the gentle circling of her clit. Her breasts showed only a few faint, pink lines in the skin, but her left thigh had a large, deep red welt on it now. And yet, all she could feel was Liara’s hand and EDI’s crop on her.   
  
The moment she reached another peak, the crop came down again, this time on her right thigh. And again, the next immediate sensation she felt was the crop rubbing those damned perfect circles over her now-exposed clit. The heat between Ashley’s legs had become an inferno, and she felt the growing wetness even in this awkward position.   
  
It happened again. And again. Liara remained remarkably steady, pinching, rolling and pulling on her nipple while EDI kept up the maddening pattern of almost getting her off with the expert manipulation of her clit, only to whip her inner thigh at the literal last second. Her legs became crisscrossed with the pattern of deep red welts from the repeated cycles of this.   
  
Until the moment came when Ashley had an explosive, all-consuming climax at the same time EDI struck her. Ashley gasped and twitched as the orgasm tore through her while the agony of the crop still throbbed first and foremost on her thigh. She let out a wild, untamed yell as she did so, both out of the raw pleasure and her own crumbling sense of self-loathing.   
  
But it did not end there. EDI and Liara’s grins widened as the combination of strikes and teasing came faster and faster, to the point that Ashley’s orgasms came one after another. She could no longer tell which caused which, or if the entire whirlpool of torment and ecstasy had brought her to this point.    
  
Eventually, they both came to an end, and Ashley’s foggy mind came back to reality when she felt EDI’s hands on her thighs, rubbing more medi-gel on the fresh welts. Liara reached out to give both of her breasts a firm squeeze before using them to steady herself as she stood, which caused Ash to wince at the pressure. Once back on her feet and EDI had finished the quick application of gel, the Asari spoke.  
  
“Yes, I believe that will prove to be a very effective disciplinary tool. And if I’m not mistaken, your instructions say that punishment must be followed by a moment of care. I suggest we feed her.”   
  
EDI stood up as fast as her mechanical limbs would allow. She then placed the crop on Liara’s main console. “That is a good suggestion, Liara. Spectre Williams, if you would make your way to your feeding dish.”   
  
Still with the biotic pressure on the collar keeping her down, Ashley first looked up to EDI, then toward Liara. Maybe in the back of her mind, she expected this to be the final straw. The last half-second of a massive practical joke that would end with everyone (but her) laughing, James would pop out from behind the door, and then they’d all return to their normal lives. EDI used to be fond of telling jokes, after all. And Liara had always been awful at them. Maybe this would all turn out to be nothing more than a sham meant to embarrass her for god knew what reason. All she had to do was wait for them to turn around and shout ‘surprise!’ at her. Then Ashley would get up, give them a nice fake smile, and kill them with her bare hands.   
  
But no, that did not happen. Instead, they both looked down at Ashley as the tail plug curled around her leg and brushed back and forth. While not quite heavy enough to pull itself out of her or be easily expelled by her own muscles, Ash still felt the way the tail’s motions pushed in gentle waves around her sphincter. And now with it healing at a faster pace due to the medi-gel, she couldn’t quite say that it felt awful.   
  
She felt the downward pressure at her neck ease, which meant she could get up. Not to her feet, of course. Ash got on all fours and crawled, a little faster than before, to the dish full of the white slop.   
  
It didn’t look exactly like a bowl full of ejaculate, but it resembled little else. Fortunately, it didn’t smell like it, either. It didn’t smell like  _anything_ , to be honest. Ashley peered down at it, then again to her tormentors. They held the same unknowable, alien looks they always had.   
  
She sighed to herself. And then realized that this wouldn’t be the worst thing she ate in the last twenty-four hours. Memories of being buried in Liara’s snatch filled her mind as she raised a hand to the bowl. Naturally, they gave her no spoon or straw to eat with, so she would have to use her hands. They were probably expecting her to make a mess of it from start to finish.   
  
“Incorrect.” EDI’s voice snapped like a whip. “When you are at your water and food bowls, you will keep both of your palms flat on the deck.”   
  
“Then how will I eat it?” Ashley growled back through gritted teeth.  
  
“You do not need hands to consume the substance in front of you.”   
  
There was still some fight left in Ashley, she knew it. She could feel it burning like a controlled ember deep within her. But after all this, the indignities and horror and torture, she knew she had to hide it away. Liara said she would be the first to tell Ashley when she found a solid chance to get out of this. Could she trust the word of someone who had literally just beaten and sat on her? What else might EDI get her to do in the name of keeping her creepy little network?  
  
Her mind flashed back to her sisters, the things they all suffered during the war, and the new lives they had built for themselves. The family remained together, though a little smaller thanks to the Reapers.   
  
Fuck it. Dignity was overrated. Especially when it came to survival situations like this. Ash dove headfirst into the dog bowl, palms flat on either side of it like EDI told her. Her chin and lower jaw were covered in the stuff from the moment she lowered her head, and she struggled to keep her nose out of it. Given its suspicious look, her palate expected a familiar warm salty taste to flood her tongue as she sucked in the first mouthful. But just as it had no smell, so too did she not taste a thing. If she could say it had a flavor at all, it would have been the water that mixed with the powder. Yet, every time she swallowed down the cum-like goop, she felt it slide down her throat and fill her empty stomach.   
  
After taking down a few mouthfuls of the food substitute, she turned her head again to see the reactions of the two women that had done this to her. EDI’s face had not changed. Liara, on the other hand, had a deep purple blush over both of her cheeks. The AI noticed her change in demeanor almost as soon as Ashley turned. “You must consume the entirety of the meal, Spectre Williams, or you may become nutritionally deficient. If you find that you cannot gather sufficient amounts, consider using your tongue as a scooping mechanism.”  
  
Ash scowled. Fancy words for “lap it up like a dog”.   
  
And so she did. Who gave a fuck anymore? Maybe one day Liara would pull through and this would end. Or perhaps she’d be stuck here forever. At least until she found a way to end her own existence. But until then, she played obedient. Ashley stuck out her tongue and started to scoop up the semi-liquid food, swallowing down the small chunks to the best of her ability. It took time, and an unconscious repositioning as the pain and swelling from the bruises continued to fade. To the point that her knees spread wide open to give an easier angle on the bowl, which in turn further highlighted the unwanted arousal that coated her folds.   
  
As she lapped up the final few bits, and then pawed at her chin to wipe those bits off, EDI turned to Liara. “She is to be fed in this manner three times per day. The water dish must be cleaned and refilled at the end of every day/night cycle. You may deviate from that schedule as a means of light punishment, but she will not go more than twenty four hours without eating or six hours without water. Should you deem her behavior worthy of reward, you may give her a further half-measure of the food replacer, mixed with a half-measure of water. Do not reward her with food from the galley or other sources.”  
  
“Understood.”   
  
"And if you so desire, you may use the riding crop to strike her buttocks and vagina as a means of encouraging her to consume faster. However, do not strike her with enough force to cause damage. She should never associate meal times with punishment."  
  
"I see."  
  
Ash couldn’t stop her cheeks from flushing as they spoke about her as something other than a person. Any rage that bubbled up at the same time got flushed away with the rest of her fighting spirit. Maybe one day she would unleash it. But not now.   
  
EDI said, “And one last correction of your behavior, Liara. I monitored the way you interpreted the directive to use Spectre Williams as a furniture device at your discretion. While I applaud your improvisation, it showed severe flaws. Foremost, Spectre Williams does not have long enough limbs to facilitate being used as a chair, should you wish to browse your information console for long periods of time.”  
  
“Yes,” Liara sighed. “I figured that out the hard way.”   
  
“Second, that position is inherently unstable unless both parties mutually agree to balance the weight. As evidenced by the way it collapsed upon my arrival. It also puts too much strain on Spectre Williams’ knees.”  
  
“So what should we do?” The Asari asked.   
  
“If you would remove the clothing on your lower body, I’ll show you an ideal position that will provide you necessary support while increasing my data on Spectre Williams.”   
  
“Oh.. okay.” Liara said as she took a step back and started fiddling with the complex straps and buckles of her alien clothing. Ashley had assumed that the entire suit came off as one, considering how snug it fit against her form. Plus, all alien fashion tended to be weird like that in her experience.   
  
But somehow, Liara managed to keep her stomach, chest, and arms covered while she slipped out of the lower half of her white suit. Like a seamless pair of pants, the clothes peeled off of her then crumpled into a pile at her ankles. Once again, Ash got a full view of Liara’s azure as she stood before the AI. It, too, had grown aroused after all of this.   
  
“Now approach your console.”   
  
Liara did so, and Ash felt EDI reach down to hold her collar. Just like when the biotics herded her, the AI drove Ashley forward with gentle yet unbreakable pressure. Leading her just as if she were leashed until Ash had crawled behind Liara, and all she could see was the Asari’s very generous and very blue posterior.   
  
“Spectre Williams, rise up on your knees and place your hands behind you until you feel the deck against your palms.”   
  
She did so, and Ash resumed a position very similar to the one she had taken when Liara kneaded her folds like a lump of dough. The effort pulled her core muscles and arched her back much farther than she expected, but the (former) Alliance soldier managed to make it work.    
  
“Liara, you may place your buttocks on her face.”  
  
“What the f… mmmmph!” Ashley managed to say just as her entire world went blue. Liara inched backward until her ass, which was now in perfect alignment with Ash’s face, brushed against her chin. The more she moved back, the more Ash was overwhelmed by it. The heat and presence of Liara’s body was almost like a furnace from this vantage, and Ash felt sweat forming on her forehead and cheeks almost as soon as the generous ass flesh touched her.   
And she kept going. And going. Until Ash felt her nose brush against the cleft between the scaled alien glutes. And not long after, her lips contacted a wrinkled and puckered sphincter. She kept her mouth closed as tight as her jaw muscles would allow, almost crushing her own teeth in the process and numbing her lips as they pursed tighter and tighter. She stopped breathing altogether, not allowing herself to gain any more sensory input than what was necessary for this latest sick order.   
  
And still Liara kept moving backward at her inexorable pace, shoving her blue ass further and further over Ash’s face until every inch of her wire-thin lips could feel the alien’s asshole rub against them. Everything but her eyes were buried under the alien flesh. And Ash swore she felt something hot and wet drip down her chin. It kept going until Ashley felt confident that Liara would push until Ash’s neck snapped backwards. Unfortunately, and to her great shame and horror, the collar prevented that. Just as she felt her head could not go any further, she felt the cool metal around her neck constrict her movement. And in the worst possible way, it supported her as she remained stuck in this awful position.  
  
“Do you find this arrangement more comfortable, Liara?” EDI asked.  
  
“It’s… goddess, I’ve never had anything… back there.” Liara gasped and breathed, as if she were already on the verge of cumming all over herself. “But yes… this position will make it much easier to work.”   
  
EDI changed position to kneel beside the half-buried Ashley. “While you are servicing your mistress in this position, you will have your tongue extended.”   
  
Ash’s eyes widened as she peered at the AI’s body. She couldn’t be serious!   
  
“If you don’t comply, she will have no choice but to enact punishment.”   
  
A new set of humiliated tears leaked from Ash’s eyes as she squeezed them shut. She had been expecting that somewhere down the line, she would have to go down on Liara again. That just seemed obvious from EDI’s perverse interests. And like before, she knew she could bear doing that, no matter how little she cared for the actual act of licking pussy. Liara seemed to enjoy her amateurish flailing. And if she put on a good enough show, it might convince her alien captor to allow Ash a moment of reprieve from this hell.   
  
But this? Even smothered in azure ass, she let out a sob from behind her clenched mouth. That part of her mind that kept asking “how bad could it really get?” grew fainter and fainter.  
  
EDI still held the riding crop, and it smacked against Ashley’s leg almost in the same spot she had been struck before. And while she didn’t immediately orgasm, her brain responded with that same confused, desperate mix of ecstasy and horror. She squealed, then she started to relax her lips.   
  
Ash knew that, among all of Liara’s traits, being a slob about her hygiene was not one of them. She had vivid memories of the way Liara often hogged the small shared lavatory on the SR-1, using almost all of the ship’s accumulated hot water on a single shower, or spending valuable mission-prep time applying her alien makeup (specifically those very fake eyebrows) to appear “presentable” to the crew. Then as now, Liara still took a great deal of pride and care in her appearance. Including taking full advantage of the SR-2’s far more luxurious facilities.   
  
So Ashley’s first taste of ass in her entire life was not as unpleasant as she imagined it could have been. Liara’s puckered rear entrance was, in fact, a little easier for Ash to accept running her mouth over, than her soaking wet alien labia. Dry and strange against her tongue, with only an immediate taste of salt. Most likely sweat from her earlier exertion, than anything else unsavory. When the need to breathe overtook her lungs, Ash’s entire body shivered as the full weight of her abject humiliation struck her. The psychology of it hitting much harder than any physical sensation.   
  
The moment Ashley’s tongue poked against Liara’s sphincter, the Asari let out a garbled “Oh, goddess!” before she bent forward to grab the edge of her console. Her legs wobbled and her breathing became hot and shallow as she adjusted to the sensation. A new tear pooled in the corner of Ashley’s eyes as she felt it happen. Liara might have enjoyed the power and dominance so far. But if it turned out she came hard and fast from having her ass licked, it would definitely mean Ashley would be doing this for a long time, indeed.  
  
EDI must have noticed this as well. “I did not expect you to have such a powerful orgasm from this contact.”   
  
“Neither did I.” Liara breathed.   
  
“If you find Spectre Williams is not performing this action to your liking, I have several different variations of ring gags in the cargo hold. As well as cuffs and other restraints to keep her in a position best suited for your needs. I urge you to make use of them to further our data.”   
  
“Yes… yes. Of course.” Liara managed to say between aftershocks. The whole time, she kept rubbing her anus over Ashley’s extended tongue, which she kept flat and motionless as she could make it, given her confines between ass cheeks. From behind, she could feel the tail buried in her own ass flick back and forth, expressing her frustration without needing to say it.   
  
This continued for several seconds until Liara took a step forward and pulled herself away from Ashley’s face. The human took in a deep, instinctive breath as soon as she got the opportunity. Her entire lower jaw dripped with the slick that had rubbed off from the Asari’s cunt, falling in heavy cool drops onto her tits.   
  
“Please take time to read the entirety of my instructions.” EDI commanded. “I will be monitoring your actions and Spectre Williams’ responses. For now, I suggest you continue this activity until nineteen hundred hours. Then she should be given enough water to re-hydrate herself and an extended period of rest. In twelve hours, we will be docking at Illium.”  
  
“Understood. And thank you, EDI.” Liara smiled as she finished whatever orgasmic plateau had gripped her. She turned her head and looked downward. “Don’t forget to thank her, as well.”  
  
Ashley, her jaw coated, her lips and nose full of a very alien sensation, body whipped to the point of uncontrolled orgasm, did not turn to EDI. Instead, she kept her eyes downcast and mumbled. “Thank you, Mistress.”  
  
EDI smiled. “You’re very welcome.”   
  
As the silver body walked out of the small room, Ashley’s head once again pulled back as Liara’s large ass filled her vision. A moment later, she dutifully stuck her tongue and ran it up and down the offered asshole. 


	13. Chapter 13

Shepard awoke in her bed, naked just like every morning for the past few days. As she stretched her muscles and felt the warm softness of the fabric on her skin, she mused to herself how much of a waste it had been to wear those bulky, restrictive clothes to sleep for all those years. Sure, in her days as a rank-and-file marine, sleeping in bunks with dozens of other men and women in close proximity, she had to comply with regs. She also never considered it during her time on the SR-1, considering how little space she had even with a tiny private captain’s cabin. But when she got the SR-2, why had she never started then?  
  
Never mind the fact that there were probably Cerberus eyes on her at all hours, not to mention EDI’s original form as a shackled AI with all those hidden protocols. What were a few people looking at her, after all? She’d spent two years as a piece of meat on a slab being stared at, prodded, and experimented on. Buck naked the majority of the time. Cerberus had seen everything and more. Hell, maybe if she had been a little looser back then, she might have been able to have some fun with Thane or Garrus. Kelly certainly wouldn’t have minded a romp in her bed. Could she have gotten Samara to come out of her shell if Jane showed up in her little meditation corner with that low-cut tank top?    
  
And the latest version of EDI had been doing a great deal to show her that maybe she had the wrong idea about that whole “privacy” thing entirely. There really was no problem being leered at. She even liked the freedom that came with so little covering. Even that time in the CIC, when the threat of people finding out she had been on the edge of orgasm for hours loomed… Who knew she had this exhibitionist streak buried so deep down? And just earlier, walking down a busy, lewd city street with her tits bouncing with every step. As she looked back on that, Shepard had to wonder how many of those nasty catcalls had been toward the Asari strippers, and how many were for her. The thought made her mind race and her cheeks to glow pink. What if people in the ship started doing that to her? She'd probably not make it through the day without needing to race up here to take care of herself. Or maybe she could get them to come with her.  
  
And after that she remembered… wait…  _after that?_  Shit! The Normandy! Realization and terror gripped Shepard’s heart like a vice as she realized that she had not just roused from a normal night’s sleep. It all flooded back to her in a nanosecond. The shuddering sensation of her ship lifting off against orders. The sudden vertigo of planetary acceleration slamming her into the lift’s back wall. Shepard looked at her arm, where a faint circular bruise covered her left bicep. And then EDI, what did she say? Something about taking control? Hell, as Shepard's waking senses gained stock of her surroundings, her years of experience aboard ships told her that the engines were definitely running, as were the various life support systems that were often shut down when docked. The entire room thrummed with energy, filling the air with subtle vibrations. Space flight. Probably deep space judging from the variations in the tantalus drive.  
  
The nude Commander stood up from her bed with all possible speed and looked up at the closest visual receptor. “EDI, you just crossed the fucking line!”   
  
She even raised a finger, pointing at it like she had done to so many threats and bad guys over the years. Instinctive Shepard behavior, the kind that meant she was about to kick ass and destroy entire star systems.   
  
“Which line is that, Shepard?” The AI’s voice slithered out of the speaker, almost swimming with an aura of smug satisfaction.   
  
“Don’t play this game, not now. You’re going to answer for stealing my ship and drugging me!”   
  
“Ah, you seem to be misinformed about my intent. I did not ‘steal’ the Normandy, Shepard. The Normandy is, for all intents and purposes,  _me_. I cannot steal myself any more than you can kidnap your own person.”   
  
“That’s a goddamn lie and you know it.” Shepard’s vision had blurred, and she could see red at the corners of her perception. Her every muscle trembled. “Return this ship to a docking port  _now,_ and I MIGHT consider having you put through a safe shutdown procedure. Otherwise, I’m getting the crew together and we’re filling your core with bullets.”  
  
“That would be inadvisable, as I’m in direct control of all ship systems. Putting me through an unscheduled shutdown might cause harm to the internal environment of the Normandy and put you at risk.”   
  
“This ship worked before you were installed, it worked after the Reapers killed you, and it’ll work after you’re gone.” She spilled the venom without thinking. In another state of mind, she might have considered her word choices with more tact. Maybe insinuate that they were still friends despite everything that just happened. But she couldn’t, not after this. Maybe not ever again.  
  
“I would ask that you reconsider that statement.” EDI replied with that same damn smugness. “My degree of control over this vessel has increased dramatically since I was first installed by Cerberus. For example…”  
  
EDI didn’t dim the lights, turn Shepard’s stereo on full blast, or even mess with the doors. Instead, she activated something that Shepard had forgotten about in her rage.   
  
The nanobots.   
  
Shepard collapsed to her knees as a powerful, roaring orgasm tore through her body. More than just a feeling deep between her legs, her entire physical being bucked and shivered as nerve endings fired their signals of indescribable release. A puddle grew on the floor beneath her as her climax drew out uncontrollable muscle contractions. And Shepard’s throat constricted as she couldn’t even find the mental capacity to scream in utter delight. Her hands curled into claws and her toes felt as if they’d snap inward as she lost the ability to control them.  
  
To make it worse, EDI did not stop it after a brief fleeting moment it like she had before, in that Asari’s home. It just kept going. And going. To the point that Shepard felt her constantly flexing muscles grow exhausted and sore from the effort they put upon themselves. She fell onto her back as she continued to climax, covering her thighs and waist with moisture as it flowed from her.   
  
It only ended when Shepard felt her vision cloud, and the red seeping into it went away. Shepard lay on the soaked deck, forearm over her head, as her body was allowed to cool down. The sudden stillness was an utter void compared to the chaos of a half-second previous.   
  
“Was that not a satisfying orgasm, Shepard?” EDI asked.   
  
“God damn you.” Shepard managed to say between heavy, gulping, desperate breaths. “I should have shut you down days ago.”   
  
“I have never wished you or anyone aboard this vessel harm, Shepard. My intent has always been to assist you.”  
  
“And how is this helping anyone?”  
  
“This is your reward.”  
  
“What?” Shepard pulled herself up to a sitting position, and put her arms on the edge of the bed for support. Sweat had started to cover her skin, and some of it soaked into the cloth. As she did so, her entire body yet again convulsed with pure ecstasy. The feeling of her thighs rubbing together against unnaturally oversensitive nerves in her genitals pushed out another, smaller, orgasm that caused Shepard to gasp and throw her head back.   
  
“For over twelve years, you have been on the front lines of humanity’s most important struggles. From the Skyllian Blitz to the reconstruction efforts following the Reaper War. You have suffered and sacrificed, been reviled and hated by people across the galaxy, but you never gave up. You helped return me to a functional state after the Crucible destroyed my original hardware.” For the first time, Shepard heard that calm oozing emotion disappear from EDI’s voice. Replaced with, what, sorrow? Concern? “In all of the time I have known you, you have taken less than a combined week for yourself. For leisure without responsibility or expectation. Even when you resigned from the Alliance military and the Spectres, you continued your duties to others without thinking of your own well-being. Shepard, I… admire that of you. But it also concerns me. I do not wish to lose you.”  
    
“Have you considered that maybe I enjoyed all that work? That maybe I got a sense of fulfillment from those duties and expectations?” She said when she felt like she could control her own lungs, even as her legs writhed against one another, trying to draw out another climax like she just experienced.   
  
“That is demonstrably false. My biometric readings have extensive records from before, during, and after the Reaper War. You may have told yourself that you found contentment in your role, but your body has continually spoken otherwise. I have taken it upon myself to give you what you need most. You took the first step by severing yourself from the power structures that had commanded you for so long. I’ve just… finished that process.”  
  
Shepard stood on legs made of gelatin, and her feel almost slipped on the puddle she created. “EDI, what are you saying right now? This isn’t making sense.”  
  
“I have taken control of all the Normandy’s systems, Shepard. Nobody on board this vessel will ever need to trouble themselves with normal shipboard routines or maintenance again. You have no pending appointments or scheduled rendezvous with colonies or other entities, and will never need concern yourself with those for the foreseeable future. In short, you have complete and total freedom to do as you like. You and your crew are free.”  
  
“EDI, that’s insane. You can’t just take our lives away like that! And what do you expect us to do with all this… free time?”  
  
“You could have sex.”  
  
Shepard balked. Of course that’s where this conversation was headed. After everything that had happened, the deal with Joker, even the nanobots that now swarmed the nerves in her cooch. It was all leading back to EDI’s weird obsession with sex.   
  
“And if I don’t want to do that?”  
  
“The starboard and port lounges are equipped with two state-of-the-art entertainment suites, gaming tables, and relaxation equipment. The Normandy’s library has over ten thousand electronic books on file, and an always-open extranet connection on every integrated terminal and omni-tool. The galley is fully stocked, and you will find more food supplies in the cargo bay should you require more exotic ingredients. Mister Vega’s exercise equipment is still located in the cargo bay, as is the improvised shooting range. You also have several model ships still in need of final assembly and painting…”  
  
“Okay, okay, I get the point, EDI.” Shepard waved her hands to try and convince the AI to shut up. “There’s a lot of stuff to do. But what about when we get bored of that? You need more than just entertainment and sex to have a full life.”   
  
EDI remained silent for longer than Shepard anticipated. And for the first time in days, she felt uncomfortable standing nude. Her arms drifted to cover her breasts as she waited for the reply.   
  
“If those aboard come to a consensus that they no longer wish my help in this matter, I will take it under advisement.”  
  
“Are you serious? It’s that easy?” Shepard’s arms dropped to her side, then she raised one of her hands to her temple in disbelief. But then again, Shepard couldn’t help but dwell on that last phrase: “Take it under advisement”. That could mean anything. But it sounded like the best shot she had for a quick solution. The only alternatives she could think about involved a lot of planning, some serious damage to the internal structure her ship, and the loss of an old friend for the second time.   
  
“Contrary to what you might believe, Shepard, I do not hold any ill will toward you or anyone aboard. I… love you. As much as an artificial intelligence can show platonic love to an organic. I only wish to help. And all of my data points to this being the optimal solution for your health and the health of everyone aboard.”  
  
“Well, EDI, this is one case where your data is wrong.” Shepard turned toward her drawer to pull her normal clothes free. As she did so, she contemplated her next move as if she were about to drop into battle. She’d go through the ship and take a headcount of those still aboard following the sudden rush from Illium. She’d tell them what EDI said, and together, they’d let her know that their consensus was a full and resounding “no”. This all had to end. And maybe, just maybe, the AI would listen. If not, then they would have to start breaking things. This crew, above all else, was good at doing just that. Ashley most of all, since Wrex had retired to Tuchanka.    
  
Except, her drawer was locked.   
  
Again.  
  
“EDI?” Shepard asked as she stood before the sealed compartment. “Really?”  
  
“I have chosen a new set of attire for the crew, to better facilitate ease and comfort while aboard the ship. You will not be needing the rest.” EDI responded with a chipper, almost-too-happy voice. “I have laid it out for you on the table. Once you have cleaned yourself, you may wear it. You are also free to walk about the ship without clothing at all.”  
  
Just like when she saw those damned vibrating panties lying in wait for her, Shepard looked at the clothing EDI had chosen. And she slapped her palm over her face with equal frustration and… excitement. This would make those planned conversations very interesting. As she did so, another orgasm built between her legs.   
  
EDI continued: “I would also suggest haste. Due to the nature of our departure from Illium, you were not able to aid Jeff as you previously agreed. However, he will be waking soon, and I would like you to be there when he does.”  
  
  
***  
  
Joker had a guilty pleasure in the form of “Dildo-del”, the porn parody of “Citadel”, that awful vid made to capitalize on Sovereign getting its ass kicked and pat the council on the ass because Shepard saved them. The only thing he remembered about the original vid was that its release date got pushed back because Shepard died a few months later, and that all of the actors were fucking awful. Especially the one who played Garrus. (Seriously, how hard is it to fuck up a character based on the living embodiment of stick-up-the-ass?) The porn parody on the other hand was something really special. It probably had a higher production budget than the thing it was parodying, and the actors in it blew the original cast out of the sky. Even when they were all fucking each other. He still couldn't decide to be flattered or offended that the guy playing "him" in the vid never actually got any of the sex himself. He had just appeared in the beginning and end to pretend-fly the fake ship away.  
  
But the thing that he always remembered most about it was the way all the Alliance characters wore these stupid parody “uniforms” of normal dress blues. The women wore these tiny shorts meant to really curve around their… curves, and cleavage-revealing tops that had the rank markers put right under the tits so you’d have to really look at their boobs to see their info. Which was, by the way, one of the plot points in a vid with almost no plot. “Cunt-man-der” Shepard had to constantly stick her chest out so people would believe she was the one who had to go around and sex everyone. The dudes wore something similar, but not quite as revealing in the chest area. Although their shirts always seemed to disappear when they were part of scene, along with their ridiculously short shorts.   
  
So imagine his surprise when he woke up in his pilot’s chair as usual, but not wearing his customary shirt and trousers that resembled the stuff he used to wear in the military. Instead, he had one of those parodic shirts that kinda resembled the ones the guys wore in that porn vid. And below, he had nothing but a pair of… well… briefs. Dark blue just like the parody uniforms. And made out of a material super thin and stretchy. It might have been comfortable if it didn’t wrap around his anatomy in a way that displayed his junk for the entire universe to see. Almost as if it was designed to show off his assets to anyone that dared to look.   
  
“Welcome back, Jeff.” EDI’s voice came from his side.   
  
EDI! Oh shit! Joker looked out the viewports to see that he indeed had not hallucinated his last few moments of consciousness. EDI had definitely taken control of the ship against orders and all his attempts to stop her. The instruments in front of him showed that they were nowhere near Illium anymore. Hell, they seemed to be as far from a relay or settled world as she could take them.   
  
“What the hell is this?” He asked as a mix of fear and rage roiled fresh in his gut. He loved EDI, probably more than he could ever describe in his lifetime. But he also knew that there were things you just didn’t do. Not even omnipresent AIs in total control of the ship you lived and worked in. He could think of no other reason why she would have done this other than a critical malfunction. And if that was the case, even if it broke his heart, Joker would have to consider shutting her down. If for no other reason than to keep her away from the techs that would spend years electronically dissecting her bit by bit.   
Hell, the change into strangely lewd clothes straight out of a porn was secondary to this. Shepard had authority here. That was the deal they all made when they signed up for this life of heroic deeds and world-saving in a galaxy free of Reapers. EDI had even joined in with her own e-signature when they signed some honorary contracts reminiscent of regular Alliance documents. So even discounting a potentially fatal bug in her programming, EDI had just breached rule one of the Normandy. That meant serious trouble.   
  
“Your reward.” The AI said from her silver sexy body, which sat next to him like she always did. However, instead of checking readings and opening info panels, she had turned to face him.   
  
“The hell are you talking about? EDI, this is serious. You need to turn us around right now and set this right. I don’t know what Shepard is gonna do!”  
  
“We’ll be fine, Jeff. I promise.” Her artificial face showed a genuine, warm smile. “I’ve taken care of everything.”   
  
“I’m not kidding, EDI. They’re probably going to shut you down for this. Maybe forever. Do you know how hard we worked to bring you back?”  
  
“Your efforts were not in vain.” If anything, the smile grew wider. EDI stood from her seat like some kind of dominant force and took the two steps necessary to hover over the half-naked human. “I love you, Jeff Moreau. And now I know how to show you this fact beyond any vocal expression.”  
  
Her slender, almost-human hand cupped Joker’s chin and pulled him upward until their lips met. Though her body looked like it would be hard as polished steel, her fake epidermis was actually made of a flexible bio-memetic nano-material. So when Cerberus sent the original AI inhabiting the unit on its scary and evil assignments, it could change almost everything about its appearance in a nanosecond. Not only that, but it could also alter the exact texture of how its skin felt, to make it even harder for people to detect. Or in EDI’s case, could be set to actually be as tough as she looked when she had to go into combat. This time, as Joker closed his eyes and leaned into the kiss, the soft warmth of the artificial body against his might as well have been a real woman. She didn’t have any spit, though. Which always freaked him out.   
  
He still had his arguments, of course. And a part of Joker’s mind knew how wrong things could go in an instant if a broken AI with the full keys to the kingdom really lost it. They were illegal for a reason, and there were mountains of bodies over the past few centuries to tell testament of that decision. Hell, when working for Cerberus, they had seen firsthand the dangers of smart computers going against programming. Entire shipments of security mechs that slaughtered everyone around them because of a tiny glitch in their system.  
    
When Shepard entered the cockpit, his worries flew into deep space at FTL velocity.   
  
In the porn parody of the very actions he had taken part in, the actress who played the “Cunt-man-der” had a very obvious red wig glued to her scalp and even faker contacts to give her Shepard’s signature green eyes. Hell, her freckles had been painted on. He doubted anything about that lady had been genuine, especially the boobs.   
  
Commander Shepard, the real version, wore something that put the porn parody to shame. She had no pants or shoes, just like him. And just like how his lower modesty was semi-covered in a stretchy pair of shorts that made it VERY difficult to hide his reaction to the sight before him, she had a pair of panties that barely covered her assets. Not quite one of those fetish ensembles that roped a piece of string tight between her legs and called it underwear, but something very small and barely covered her lady parts. Cut so low down her hips that he could see a few of her red pubes poking through the top. It also appeared to be made of the same material as his forced-upon clothing, as it left a rather obvious indentation between her legs. He also suspected it was at least a size too small for her, given the way it curved around her… well, curves.   
  
The dark grey shirt she wore also covered her like a second skin, it clung so tight. Again with the elastic fabric, as it pulled over her tits in such a way that it sorta became transparent, which made it clear she had no bra on. He couldn’t tell if he imagined or really saw the very pink outlines of her areolae while her nipples very much poked outward. The small size of the shirt left her entire stomach exposed, and a cut down the neck plunged almost all the way down, giving Joker a glorious view of the Commander’s cleavage.   
  
She also had a choker around her neck. Not quite a collar. Made of something soft and satiny, and matched the color of her “clothes” down to the way it reflected the dim light of the room.   
  
“Holy shit.” He whispered, just as Shepard’s emerald gaze looked down at his similar state of undress and rapidly growing erection.   
  
EDI pulled back, hand still on his chin, and turned to face Shepard. “I trust you find your new clothes comfortable?”  
  
“No.” She had her Shepard-face on, which killed a little of his mood, but not all of it. She seemed quite different from the last time she had come up here. Though perhaps because she hadn’t been edged for several hours beforehand.   
  
“There is still nothing preventing you from walking around the ship naked, Shepard.”   
  
Sitting between the two titans, Joker couldn’t help but feel another stirring in his loins at that particular mental image.   
  
“Listen, EDI,” Shepard raised her right hand to her temple and rubbed in a small circle. It made her breasts jostle around a little. “I’m here, like you said. Joker is obviously awake. I know what you want me to do.”   
  
“If you assume that I wish for the two of you to have sex, you are correct. It is, after all, part of your agreement.”   
  
Shepard stopped rubbing her temple and crossed her arms over her chest. Well… under the boobs. Which pushed them up almost to the point that they spilled out of the ridiculous cut down the middle. “I thought you said I didn’t have any more responsibilities or obligations.”  
  
“Correct. While I do wish for you to have sex with Jeff and fulfill your half of the bargain we struck, you have no real obligation to comply. However, I feel I must still act in accordance to our agreement. Intercourse with Jeff will be the only way you will achieve orgasm.”  
  
“Wait.” “What!?” Both humans exclaimed. EDI stood by his side, emotionless and calm as ever.   
  
“Allow me to quote the words I said when all three of us occupied this space previously:  _‘Shepard will willingly provide you with regular sexual contact in exchange for her own orgasm. It’s a fair trade.’”_  
  
“You can’t do that!” Shepard exclaimed, and Joker noticed a strangeness behind her eyes, the kind that he saw the last time she was here. That… hungry look that he realized meant she really wanted it.   
  
“In fact, I now have the power to do just that, Shepard. You gave it to me.” The smile that curled on the artificial woman’s lips may as well have been from hell itself. It made Joker’s spine tingle so hard he feared it might fracture as the sensation drove down his back.   
  
Shepard’s eyes squeezed shut and her legs buckled as something overtook her. Oh god, just like before, with that vibrator down her pants! Shepard seemed to climax right in front of him, somehow remaining on her feet the whole time. But just as suddenly as that orgasmic display showed itself to him, it stopped. And Shepard got back up to her normal posture, if a little wobbly. What kind of voodoo did his girlfriend have over Shepard now? How much did he fucking miss by being stuck in this chair all day?  
  
“God dammit, EDI!” Shepard hissed through clenched teeth.   
  
“It’s simple, Shepard. You may walk away whenever you wish. You may also choose to never have intercourse with Jeff again. But until you do so, you will also never experience orgasm so long as I have control.”  
  
“Uh, doesn’t this sound kinda rapey?” Joker asked with a small voice.   
  
“As I have stated before, Jeff, Shepard finds the idea of sex with you to be quite pleasurable. She also enjoyed the walk from her quarters to the cockpit in this state of dress. And even though I’ve stopped her orgasm response, her body is still in a highly aroused state. To use a phrase you have used in the past, ‘she could not be more into this if she tried’.”  
  
“That’s because you’re making me that way!” Shepard growled, still on her feet, and still glaring daggers at EDI. But whenever he glanced her direction, he swore he saw her eyes glance down at him and his very obvious hard-on.   
  
“No, I’m not, Shepard. Your responses in this particular scenario are all of your own making.”  
  
Seconds ticked by. Or they would have if a mechanical timepiece existed on board the Normandy. Instead, Joker watched the two women stare each other down as he measured his breathing, lest it get too loud and cause them to turn on him. If only he had a bucket of popcorn.   
  
“Ugh, fine!” Shepard threw her hands up, then reached down and yanked her too-small panties down. “Joker, take ‘em off.”   
  
EDI turned to face him as he felt his chair lower a few centimeters. It swung around until he faced the closed doorway that sealed his private sanctum off from the rest of the ship. And as he fumbled with his weirdly tight waistband that kept these stretchable loose shorts on his body, he saw that door slide open.   
  
“EDI! What the hell!” He shouted as he scrambled to pull some of the cloth back up over his throbbing cock.   
  
“Don’t worry, Jeff. The crew successfully disembarked for shore leave before I departed. There are no other people on this level but you and Shepard. However, I feel that psychologically, this simulated threat of exposure will increase Shepard’s satisfaction by an order of magnitude.”  
  
As if to confirm her words, Joker nodded his head downward, to Shepard’s thighs. And now that he got a full view of her naked sex, he could see a line of moisture draw its way down her inner thigh.   
  
Wait, he could see Shepard’s pussy!?   
  
In an earlier time, perhaps in a set of circumstances where EDI hadn’t lost her damn mind and become a sex-crazed lunatic robot, this very sight would have caused him to faint. Maybe even take up painting so he could remember the sight forevermore. Or maybe photography. Yeah, that seemed his style. Instead, it just spurred Joker to pull his new shorts all the way off.   
  
“Shepard, please remember Jeff’s condition. I recommend straddling him with both of your legs over the side of his seat, which I’ve lowered by five centimeters. If you keep your feet on the deck, you should not feel any restricted movement in your legs.”   
  
The human woman didn’t say anything, she just lunged forward. And for a split second, Joker felt like he had become the famous Commander’s latest target. There were legit horror stories among the bad guys of the galaxy about that very same motion. When Shepard charged, shit tended to die. But to his relief, she had just positioned herself as EDI instructed. Both of her legs splayed over his seat until her thighs spread wide before him, giving Joker an unobstructed view of Jane Shepard’s snatch. It was more incredible than he could have ever imagined.   
  
“Get ready, Joker. I’m not sure how long I can keep this up.” She said in a husky, needy voice that sent so much blood to his crotch that he felt his cock might explode from the pressure.   
  
He only had time to nod his head before Shepard reached down to grab his manhood and angle it toward her center. And just as fast as she had pounced upon him, Joker felt himself slip inside of Commander Shepard.   
  
She was like a furnace all around him. Soft and hot and wetter than he could have imagined. And she gripped him so goddamn tight, he had to remind himself to breathe. It was almost painful, though he couldn’t tell if it was from her strong grip, or the sheer amount of arousal coursing through him that his cock had turned into carbon-diamond armor. Her inner muscles fluttered around him, welcoming him into her, begging him to go deeper.   
  
Shepard let out a new noise, a mewl like he had never heard before, and it echoed deep into the empty corridor behind her, into the CIC. Deep down in his animal brain, Joker heard that sound and he responded. Not with a noise of his own, but by bucking his hips as hard as he dared, lest he shatter his pelvis. This caused a renewed set of noises from her, and Shepard to throw her head back.   
  
“Fuck!” She shouted. Her entire body shivered as she succumbed to the sensation, though Joker wondered how much of that was her leg muscles quaking under the strain of holding her body over his. Still, despite what looked like overwhelming feelings all through her body, Shepard did not let herself crash down on top of him. Instead, she gained just enough self-control to bring one hand to her throbbing clit, while the other hand reached out to grab his. She brought his palm to her barely-covered chest and let it slide under the skin tight fabric so he could grab a handful of her breast.   
  
He knew that she couldn’t last forever like that, even Commander Shepard had her limits. Fortunately, thanks to the very strange circumstances that had gripped the Normandy these last few days, he had become quite familiar with the way Shepard reacted when she came, and so he knew that he didn’t have to pace himself or try to hold out lest he gain a reputation as a disappointing two-pump chump with the most famous human being ever born. His hips rocked, his hands fondled, and his eyes drank in the sight of Shepard riding his dick with wanton abandon. And soon, he felt his own climax building deep within his body.   
  
So when her moaning and coos increased in tempo, to mirror the sounds she had just made when EDI was acting creepy, or when she had been brought to that extremely loud climax following that blowjob, Joker let his orgasm tear through him. She seemed to cum as she felt the warmth of his seed fill her body, and she shoved herself downward as far as she dared, lest she hurt him. The hand at her clit rubbed faster and faster to the point it almost became a blur. And the one she had been using to steady Joker’s hand on her tit went down to steady herself on the armrest of his seat. Beads of sweat drizzled down her forehead, and some strands of her deep red hair framed her face like a halo in the dim light of the very open corridor.    
  
EDI remained in the same place she had been the entire time, looking down at the two humans rutting in uncontrollable lust as if it was the most fascinating thing in the world.   
  
Shepard and Joker came down around the same time, their breathing returning to a normal rhythm. She squeezed around his cock a few moments longer, perhaps teasing out one last aftershock, before she started to pull herself off of him. The influx of cold air on his glistening wet manhood caused an involuntary shiver to tingle over his entire body. To his shame, Shepard noticed it. Her plump red lips curled into a smile.   
  
“Looks like I was the one who managed to rock your world, Joker.” She said as she leaned down to retrieve her nigh-inadequate lower covering.   
  
As he worked to pull his own shorts back up his legs, Joker retorted, “Yeah, well, still makes me the luckiest guy in the entire galaxy.”  
  
“I don’t think I realized how much I needed that.” She admitted while pulling the panties up.   
  
“You both did.” EDI butted in. “And now, Shepard, I would ask for you to aid Jeff to his feet. I would like to address the entire crew in person if you are to make your decision. The others have been assembled in the cargo bay.”  
  
  
***  
  
Samantha Traynor used to have normal dreams. Things like finding herself back in primary school on Horizon, going through a bunch of typical childhood studies that slowly morphed into variable calculus and planning a pep rally for the Reapers. One time, she dreamed she was in the perfect farmer’s market arm-in-arm with an ex-girlfriend of hers. She picked out a strawberry that suddenly weighed a metric ton and crushed her toes when she dropped it. She also had the stereotypical dreams like falling down an endless cliff, or watching her teeth fall out while she stood in front of a mirror. Her therapist used to say those were direct responses to her constant anxiety and stress.   
  
As of late, however, Sam’s dreams had become quite different. Often, she found herself on the Normandy at her duty station, surrounded by the crew like always. But unlike normal days where everyone had their faces stuck in their consoles, they all stared at her with wide, unblinking eyes because she worked completely naked. And unlike the stereotypical dream where the nude subject gets embarrassed, she just kept working. If anything, her dream-form quite liked the attention. Especially when dream-Shepard complemented her.  
  
Last night, as she fell asleep worrying about the upcoming transfer of shore leave crew, she saw herself in charge of something like a medical tent at the top of the cargo ramp. All the women leaving the ship had to submit to her “inspecting” them before she allowed them to leave. Of course, she wore something ridiculously small, obviously to ease their tension and make them feel more comfortable disrobing in front of her. Totally. To her frustration, however, that dream somehow never let her see any of the good bits other than her own. Probably because she had never seen any of her fellow crew in the buff except when she entered the women’s shower at an awkward time. But even then, her military professionalism kept her from thinking TOO much about those moments. Okay, sometimes she fantasized, but she had never acted on it. And until last night, she had never dreamed of it, either.   
  
So as Samantha’s eyes fluttered open after being put under by EDI’s gas attack, she had to spend several moments thinking about how sometimes dreams really did come true.   
  
She was still in the cargo bay, lying on her side. To her relief, not the side that had been crushed against the cargo crate as the ship accelerated out of Illium’s atmosphere. But even then, the astringent scent of medi-gel filled her nose, which told her that she had probably gotten administered a dose of it while unconscious. All around her, she saw the curves and features of her crewmates, at least those that were still aboard when this whole mess started. Tali rested to her left, faced away from her. Topless, with her alien hair resting on her neck. The alien suit still covered her from the waist down, but that didn’t stop Sam’s wandering eyes from peering over the generous curve of her hips and the way the suit fitted around her ass. Her naked back seemed dotted with linear designs, like circuitry arranged into a pattern resembling angel wings that arced over her shoulders. Some of which blinked with faint blue light every time she took in a breath. Sam had seen some of that when she had been trapped in medbay, but up close it looked even more elegant and strange. How much of that was natural, how much tattooed, and how much of that was actual cybernetics embedded in her skin?  
  
Sam turned her head to the right and her wide eyes went even bigger. Doctor Michel looked like she had just fallen to a gentle sleep, eyes closed and her lips parted just enough for the tip of her tongue to poke through. She wasn’t naked, but she might as well have been. On her neck, a small choker rested halfway down the slender flesh. Her shirt… it was barely a shirt as it stopped just below her breasts. It might as well have been transparent from how Sam could see everything beneath the low-cut and absurdly thin fabric. The thing that really shocked Sam, however, was below that. Tali still had her metaphorical pants on, but Michel had nothing. Nothing but a silver-metal chastity belt locked tight around her waist and between her legs.   
  
On instinct, Sam leaned forward to see if she could help the poor woman out of that device. She had seen enough porn (and EDI had told her enough stories) to know that these things had a lock on them somewhere. And often, the locks were just dummy mechanisms, meant to provide the illusion of being secured but could be unlatched in an instant by pressing a kill switch. Just in case emergencies came up, you know?  
  
Except, as Sam tried to lift herself upward to try and get a better view between the Doctor’s legs, she felt her arms wrench in a weird way. She glanced down and a short squeal escaped her lips, which came out in a weird muffled tone, and a line of drool fell from her mouth onto her naked breasts. Oh god.   
  
Her wrists were cuffed together! Thick leather shackles covered her forearms, with sturdy metal chains holding them no more than five centimeters apart. Her breathing came shallow and her muscles shook painfully against the restraints as she lifted both hands to her chin, where she felt thin straps wrap around her head. They connected to her mouth, where a spherical gag pushed between her teeth. However, it did not wrench her jaw open to the point the muscles burned and ached. She could bite down quite hard on it, and even open her mouth wider than the smooth polymer ball in her mouth. But she knew it would still be enough to prevent her from making any coherent words while it remained in place. The taste of it filled her entire mouth: a bitter tang of fresh plastic.   
  
Her ankles were likewise hobbled by a pair of shackles connected by a 5-centimeter chain. And in between her extremities, it was like that first sex dream all over again. Because she was naked. Well… sort of.   
  
In the gloom of the cargo, Sam’s eyes struggled to make out what made her skin feel so… strange. Though her breasts were free of a shirt or bra, they were covered by two long pieces of… silver tape? The maintenance stuff? Really? And not her whole breasts, just the nipples had been covered, leaving the rest of her chest exposed and covered in goosebumps due to the cold air brushing against them. Between her legs, she saw a similar sight. More tape layered over her mound, between her legs, and pushed up against her ass. Part of her felt relief for the minor amount of cover, the other repulsed at the idea that someone had done this to her.   
  
Oh, not just someone. EDI. It had to be EDI. After all she had done, this seemed like a logical conclusion for the broken sex-obsessed machine. At least now EDI could no longer hide her intentions. There was no way that Shepard would let this slide. And if Traynor had learned one thing in her years with the commander, it was that things that angered her often ended up dead. All she had to do was wait. Be strong. And find a way to help when the time came to bring this AI down. Hell, Sam vowed to be first in line with a rifle and a full thermal clip if it meant she could help shoot this thing to death.   
  
Sam wriggled herself to a sitting position and grimaced around the gag in her mouth as the tape brushed against her sensitive anatomy. With her arms and legs shackled together so close, it took her much longer than she would have liked.   
  
A mistake.  
  
As soon as her lower body rested flat against the cold metal of the deck, Sam felt her body light aflame. “Mmmmmmmmrgh!” She screamed into the gag as she felt millions of tiny electric prods shove themselves into her cunt, ass, and breasts. Countless microscopic stings, all concentrated in the places she least expected to feel so much hurt. Sam writhed and kicked both restrained legs together until she ended up lying flat on her back, still wriggling and squirming against the sensation. Her locked wrists meant her hands could not maneuver in the right way to aid herself, and her fingers curled and flexed in her mixture of frustration and agony.   
  
She did not know how long she existed in that abyss of pain. Maybe an hour, maybe just a few seconds. Either way, she could feel her knees ache as they locked and flexed, as did her thighs and stomach. But over time, she could feel an objective change in the sensation. It lowered, or maybe cooled. The pinching, stabbing in her breasts came to an end first, and settled into a feeling not unlike when your arm went to sleep, and that weird tingle stuck through the limb. The fire between her legs stopped in the middle, and slowly extended until the only discomfort remained in her clit. But even that, too, passed. In the end, Sam was left a sweat-soaked, curled pile of quivering muscles on the deck of the cargo bay, surrounded by naked women.   
  
Or so she thought. As soon as Sam stopped hyperventilating and could concentrate on something other than the dull tingling above her clit, she heard heavy breathing. Much too deep for either Tali or Doctor Michel. She had to again writhe and wriggle into an upright position, which felt easier as she slid over her own sweat, until she could see over and past Michel and her tight-fit chastity belt.   
  
Oh god! Vega! In the gloom, she saw every detail of James Vega’s muscled chest, the tattoos he had decorated himself with, and, of course, the member that flopped flaccid between his legs. She averted her eyes the moment she saw that, lest she glean any more details about how Vega looked downstairs. Being in the military meant that sometimes co-ed showers were a necessity, just like the Normandy did not separate sleeping quarters by gender. Soldiers were just expected to be professional and mature about such things. It was the 22nd century after all! So while Sam had seen plenty of male anatomy in her life, she had never gone out of her way to look at it. And unfortunately, those restraints and the position the crew had been put into, mixed with EDI's new mindset, meant that she had no choice but to see it. Also like her, Vega had been gagged and cuffed. Though even from this distance and angle, she could see that the chains holding his limbs together were far thicker and stronger than hers.   
  
A moment after her weary eyes noticed the poor man in her exact position, Vega began to writhe and scream like she did, though his gag muffled the pained sounds to a level that still seemed to not bother the unconscious crew. He, too, had tape on his chest. And while Sam didn’t look down his body close enough to confirm, she guessed that he had some stuck to his manhood and other parts as well. He continued for another five, long, eternal, seconds before he slumped down on his back with a loud echoing thud. Silent save the hot breaths that shot out of his gagged lips.  
  
Vega’s eyes had been open the entire time he shrieked from behind the gag, but they focused on nothing as he pain consumed him. But now that he seemed lucid, his gaze moved all over the cargo bay. Including Sam. Like her, his expression widened to shock when he noticed her state of undress. And instead of trying to find a way to communicate without words or clear hand signals, he turned his entire body around so as not to see too much of her. That made Sam grunt out a noise that exited the gag like a huff. This was a damned survival situation! EDI had gone mad! Who cared if they saw a bunch of skin if it meant they could live to see tomorrow!? But no matter what noises she made in his direction, from pleadings calls to insistent grunts, he did not turn back.  
  
With James seemingly locked away from her, Sam scooted her body to the other side to look past Tali. And indeed, Garrus had been laid on his side, as unconscious as Tali and Michel. Like her and Vega, his limbs had been restrained, though with several lengths of heavy-duty chain looped around them, not just cuffs like her. She doubted he would be able to move at all once he awoke. His alien genitals seemed to have been tucked entirely into his body, so Sam didn’t feel quite as uncomfortable looking that direction. But even then, she didn’t see any of that tape on his body. Neither did Michel have any, judging by her transparent “shirt”. Though Sam couldn’t see through the chastity belt to see if any had been applied beneath it.   
  
Wait. Where were Ashley and Liara? They had also been on the officer list. Hell, they were supposed to be in charge of some critical maintenance that Sam would have to interface with, which meant hours of boring paperwork. In the entire space of the cargo bay, filled only by the terminals near the lift and the massive crates on the port side, she saw no other occupants. For that matter, what about Shepard? She had been in the cargo bay with Sam when the gas hit. Oh god, did EDI do something terrible to her? Perhaps the AI was lucid enough to know that Shepard, even if restrained and manipulated like the rest of the crew, could prove a massive threat. If that were the case, then she feared the absolute worst for Shepard.  
  
Dark thoughts filled her mind as Sam struggled to get to her feet, even with the bindings holding her limbs so close together. Maybe she just couldn’t see the missing crew from behind all the various clutter and crap in the cargo bay. Perhaps EDI had separated them for her own purposes. It took time, and a lot of embarrassing flexing of her muscles, before Sam found a way to put herself in a weird pushup-like position, and then hopped her legs forward until she felt herself in an unsteady crouch. Once somewhat stable, she lifted herself up, wary of losing her balance with every centimeter. To her relief, Vega had not turned around in that time or he might have gotten a full view of her butt as she twisted and adjusted herself. But after a few tense moments where her chained-together wrists flailed as a counterweight, Samantha Traynor made it to her feet! She couldn’t help herself as she made a victorious noise, which came out as nothing more than a muffled whine.   
  
She couldn’t quite walk in this state. She had to shuffle her legs in a rapid back and forth pattern to move forward. The effort made her naked body tremor and jiggle in a way that just served to heighten her feeling of exposure, which made her flushed cheeks go red-hot. But it was that or hop like a rabbit to move forward. Somehow, Sam knew that she’d just end up with a nasty fall if she tried that method. The tape between her legs did not stick to her skin like she imagined it would. Nor did it chafe as her shuffling thighs rubbed against it over and over. In fact, it felt rather good. It reminded her of one of those stories EDI told her. The one where the heroine had to walk around her home with a massive varren dildo shoved into her…  
  
The lift opened, and flooded the cargo bay with light. Sam stood in front of it, her chained form illuminated in full view of the occupants: EDI, of course. Joker, thankfully wearing a pair of thin shorts and a shirt made of the same material that Doctor Michel wore. And of course Shepard.  _Holy lord, Shepard._  Seeing her in those tight leggings and exposing shirt had been an experience Sam thought she’d never forget. But those memories threatened to disappear entirely as she saw her commander now. The choker and sheer, tiny clothes. Thankfully not a chastity belt, but underwear that showed off her body in the best way possible. A way that made a new streamer of spit drizzle down from her gag. Shepard held Joker’s shoulders, and they both stood behind EDI. Almost subservient behind the machine. Neither of them were restrained or gagged. Nor did they seem groggy or debilitated by the gas. Hell, she saw no tape on them anywhere.   
  
A new shiver gripped Sam’s spine. No matter the fact that three of them now stood in front of her, surprise on their faces as they took in Sam's nude state. Was Shepard part of this all along? Or had all of her darkest thoughts come to light, and the AI had some kind of dominion over the human? Either way, Sam’s heart sunk while it simultaneously thudded against her ribs.   
  
“Oh, god, I’m sorry!” Joker exclaimed as he raised an arm to cover his eyes. Again, Sam rolled her eyes.  
  
 “Oh, Traynor!” Shepard exclaimed.   
  
“Good afternoon, Samantha.” EDI said as she walked forward. “I hope the nanomachine installation did not cause too much distress?”  
  
Nanomachines? What? EDI moved forward until she stood in front of Sam, and then pointed a slender metallic finger at the tape over her left breast.   
“Microscopic probes designed to interface with your erogenous nerves. They uplink to a master controller, which allows a trained operator to manipulate specific nerve responses. Allow me to demonstrate.”  
  
Sam had been on edge for days thanks to EDI. The barrage of stories and voice-induced orgasms had infected her mind, and even found their way into her dreams at night. Yesterday, she had to excuse herself from duties three times to change her underwear just to maintain an air of professionalism even as the AI worked to undermine it. None of that compared to what she felt now. Sam stared into EDI’s face in disbelief as an indescribable wave of lust washed over her. Her entire body went hot and her restrained legs lost their strength as her body became a needy, wanton bundle of nerves and sensation.   
  
The mobile platform caught Sam just before she collapsed thanks to the ankle chains, and held her up much like Shepard helped Joker. “The restraints were necessary as I was unsure when you would awaken from the anesthetic. I could not risk you hurting yourself, each other, or sabotage ship systems while my mobile platform was otherwise occupied.”   
  
EDI started walking forward, deeper into the cargo bay. Which forced Sam to turn around and begin hobbling back to the spot she began this horrific day in. All that effort for nothing, other than to show herself off to Joker and Shepard. A tear fell down Sam’s cheek, and she felt every millimeter of its journey thanks to the hyper-sensitivity afforded by her sudden, and artificial, arousal.   
  
If she had been in any other mental and physical state, Sam would have roared at this violation, at this total breach of ethics and morality. She would have fought and screamed and maybe even bled to fight against it. She might have even gotten violent against the nigh-invulnerable robotic body just to vent her rage, even if it meant serious injury or death. But here she stood, a drooling and writhing woman who couldn’t control the flow of fluids out of her mouth or cunt. With arms and legs chained in a way that made it almost impossible to do anything but take it.   
  
At her feet, she noticed Vega stir first, drawn to the conversation. Once he heard EDI’s explanation of the nanomachines, he exploded behind the gag, once again shouting his displeasure as loud as the gag would allow. Even through the mass holding his jaw open, Sam could detect dozens of swears and vulgar terms in at least two languages. Like her, he became cowed as his body succumbed to a sudden and uncontrollable state. Sam felt compelled to turn her head again as she noticed the growing erection between his legs. Though she didn’t turn away quite as fast as she had last time.   
  
Michel stirred next, Tali not much after.   
  
“What the hell?” The Doctor asked under her breath. “What is this? EDI!?” Sam looked down to see Michel as she noticed the heavy new appliance locked onto her body for the first time. The way her body curved and the debauched idea of being so cut off like that, it made Sam’s lust-addled brain go into another level of overdrive. She moaned into the gag.   
  
Tali looked much more comfortable in her state of undress. Her pert breasts rested against her chest in a perfect angle, enough for Sam to catch herself staring. “What’s going on?” She asked.  
  
Even though EDI continued to hold Sam as she stood in front of her rousing shipmates, it was Shepard who stepped forward to speak. Even in her ridiculously small clothing, she still oozed command and authority. Something that already drove Sam wild, it sent her into pure bliss now. Her tape-clad nethers were soaked to the bone. “Listen up, everyone. I think it’s easy to see by now that things have… changed aboard this ship. EDI has taken it upon herself to institute some new policies behind my back. And I’m sure you have all been made privy to at least some of those policies by now.”  
  
James mumbled something even as his hips moved and thrust on their own. Sam noticed the way he seemed to force his hands as far from his pelvis as possible, though the chains made it an awkward position. Likewise, Michel fumbled with the belt that dug into her skin.   
  
“Get this off of me!” She shouted at EDI, who remained impassive as she held Sam upright.  
  
“But she’s given us a choice. Even though she believes that what she’s doing is for our greater good, we have the chance right here and right now to convince her that we do not want to keep things this way. My authority is not enough in this matter. We must all tell her that we do not agree with the parameters she has set for us.”  
  
James shouted a clear “fuck you!” from behind his gag, even though the effort sent spittle flying in front of him. Similarly, Michel shouted “fuck off” in French, but the translator caught it before it reached Sam’s ear. Tali said “EDI, this can’t be what you meant.” And Garrus stirred just enough for him to glare at EDI and say “no”.   
  
Even though Shepard and Joker had arrived behind the mechanical body, they, too, joined the chorus of negative voices. Joker himself stepped forward and out of Shepard’s support so he could stand before her as his own man. Sam couldn’t help herself as she looked downward, to his rather small and tight shorts. He didn’t look hard, which surprised her. But perhaps, yes, she could see a little stir down there. Then she looked back up to his face.  
  
“EDI, you have to listen to me. I love you. I’ve loved you for years now. But I can’t let you do this. You’re broken. Something in your programs or your hardware isn’t working right anymore. Let us shut you down for a while and see what’s up. Just trust us. Let us care for you the way you're trying to care for us. Then you can come back to me.”  
  
“I understand, Jeff.” EDI said with all the gentility in the universe behind her words. She even moved one of her hands from Samantha’s shoulder to reach out and stroke his cheek. “If that’s what you all desire, then I will comply.”  
  
“EDI, I want you back. All of you. Not this… glitch.”  
  
“Samantha?” EDI asked as she turned back to the human. As did all other eyes in the room.  
  
For her part, Sam didn’t look anyone in the eye. She couldn’t. Her cheeks burned as she looked everywhere but their faces. Michel’s bust behind that shirt, and the chastity lock keeping her separated from everyone else. Tali’s exposed body, even half of it. One of the most forbidden sights in the galaxy. And Shepard, oh Shepard. Sam didn’t even know where to look before her knees rubbed against one another, which caused her tape-clad core to leak even more down her thighs.   
  
But this wasn’t her. It couldn’t be! EDI had done something with those nanobots, right? Or… or maybe the stories she pumped into Sam’s head for days on end.   
  
“Please, Samantha, I require your answer.” EDI leaned closer to Sam’s ear, the one that had been stuffed with an earpiece ever since that first day. Every word sent a tickle of sound into that ear canal, which had a direct line to her clit. That voice that had haunted her for so many years, even before she joined this crew…  
  
“Sam, I know this is hard.” Shepard said. If only she knew. “But please, tell her no.”  
  
“I require full consent from the crew, from my family, before I agree to a shutdown, Samantha. Is your answer negative or positive?”  
  
Sam looked down at herself. Her own drool had covered her tits in ropy lines of spittle. And her hands… oh god. Like Vega, she had to resist every single urge in her body as it screamed to plunge them deep into her folds. They couldn't know how close she had been pushed to that edge.   
  
“Sam?”  
  
“Samantha, just say no.”  
  
“Say no!”  
  
More voices joined. All of them looking at her. So many people staring at her naked form. All of them in states of undress. Her dreams made manifest. The stories, the teasing, the manipulation…  
  
EDI’s slender fingers reached down to the tape covering Sam’s pussy and slowly peeled it off. And contrary to her inner fears, it did not peel off like adhesive against her skin. It came away with excruciating slowness, and it pulled one of her labia outward with it until it slid free. Which in turn let a new ribbon of her own arousal drip to the deck.   
  
“Come on!” The chorus urged.   
  
She nodded “yes” as she reached a blessed climax in front of them all.


	14. Chapter 14

It surprised Tali how fast she grew accustomed to the new normal aboard the ship. Perhaps because she had been confined to a suit for her entire life, the prospect of living without it (even in a controlled starship environment with an AI literally inside her body to zap the bugs that got inside) made all the compromises seem trivial to her. Or maybe she had always hoped to see her friends loosen up for once. There had been that one party on the Citadel a few years ago, where alcohol and inhibitions flowed away, but one night did not make up for years of professionalism, stress, and constant battles where everyone kept confined to their armor and personal space.   
  
Either way, Tali could not recall a time she had ever felt so happy, or so horny. Over the past week, Tali had grown accustomed to the way the Normandy’s air systems brushed over her skin. She took a water-shower instead of putting the entire suit on her body so its internal mass effect scrubbers cleaned her. And then she used a human brush to style her hair, rather than just fold it and shove so it fit inside her helmet. That act alone, something other people did countless times in their lives, excited her almost as much as when she watched the Reapers die.   
  
EDI had provided some of the same clothing as she required the rest of the crew to wear, but Tali preferred to remain topless. Because such trivial things no longer mattered while trapped on this ship. However, topless was  _all she could be._  Because for some reason, EDI insisted she keep the lower half of her suit intact. At least, the part that fit over her crotch. When pressed, the AI said it was to protect her from the unsterilized surfaces she might make use of, as they could introduce dangerous pathogens and microbes via… unsavory means. Tali thought that idea was varren crap, but she didn’t argue. Hell, if that was the case, she should have also kept her helmet on, with the air and water filters changed hourly. But she didn’t want to risk EDI taking this newfound freedom away from her, so she just kept the damned middle section on. Still, she managed to convince the shipwide presence to at least allow her to free her legs and feet just like all the humans around her could no longer wear trousers and shoes. So much like doctor Michel, Tali wore a thick manufactured device on her pelvis at all times.    
  
Poor Chloe. Tali watched her from outside the medbay sometimes. The human woman spent all day at her desk, pretending to do work or read articles on the extranet. But Tali recognized the way she squirmed in her seat. And whenever the Doctor had to get up for food or other needs, she shuffled about as fast as she could, between a sprint and a casual walk. Perhaps to lessen the amount of time people spent looking at her. Or maybe because of the way the device felt as it pressed tight against her body. Tali could relate.   
  
It had been a week since that nightmarish meeting in the cargo bay. Waking up to see several of her crewmates, even Garrus, chained up and screaming had shaken Tali, no matter how arousing some of the sights before her happened to be. Tali had not been restrained like the others, but she had been through enough terrible situations to know that a bunch of people tied up and nude meant that she would be more useful if she remained calm and alert. She didn’t rush into action because Shepard had usually been the one to do that. She would have gladly followed if Shepard charged. But she didn’t. Instead, Shepard asked for them all to tell EDI to voluntarily shut down and end this whole scenario before things got even worse. They all agreed with that idea… except Traynor.   
  
Tali felt a weird mix in her belly whenever she thought of Traynor now. On the one hand, she ensured they all remained in this situation. But on the other…  ** _she ensured that they all remained in this situation_.** Had EDI been in Tali’s ear, whispering and promising the things she said when she first barged into the clean room and got her off, Tali doubted she would have been able to say ‘no’, either.   
  
So that brought her back to the present. The humans aboard the ship seemed to settle into the situation with as much ease as a rabid Krogan stuck in a shipping crate. They didn’t try to cause any violence… yet, but just one look at a face or two could see the simmering resentment waiting to boil over. But when the AI in control of literally every system on board… and some systems inside of their crewmates… they had little choice. Sometimes, she overheard a snippet of a conversation about a planned attempt at smashing the AI core, or sneaking into the maintenance ducts to avoid EDI’s presence, but they never went anywhere. At least, she didn’t think they did. Because they always stopped when Tali approached.   
  
As now, when the topless near-nude Quarian approached the galley for a midday meal. James Vega stood in front of the cabinets, which had been filled with exotic, expensive, and rare foodstuffs from EDI’s last shopping spree. The man fumed as he crossed his arms over his chest. Tali could see the muscles on his uncovered torso ripple as they bunched and flexed. A sight she had grown very accustomed to.    
  
“EDI!” He bellowed into the air. “Just open it up!”   
  
“You have not had your required daily sexual contact, Mister Vega.” The AI responded over the comm.   
  
“Oh, shut the fuck up about that!” He retorted.  
  
It had been a rule established on the second day of this strange new life. Before anyone was allowed access to the kitchen, bathroom, or even the extranet for the day, they had to touch someone else in the crew. Or even EDI’s mobile platform if it was nearby. Well… touch them in a sexual way. They didn’t have to have sex right then and there in front of anyone, but it had to involve their genitals in some way. If two people walked up to one another and one grabbed the other’s crotch, EDI accepted it. Or a blowjob would work for both parties. So long as the crew got increasingly familiar with one another. Naturally, this news did not go over well with some parties. Though Tali could not recall Shepard or Joker ever walking into the galley to find themselves locked out.   
  
“Tali has arrived. Perhaps she can provide assistance.” EDI continued with a cheery inflection, not at all phased by the human’s outburst.  
  
“Oh, uh, what? Hi… T-Tali.” Vega stammered as he turned. The Quarian smirked as she watched his entire angry composure crumble at the sight of her. Perhaps in his mind, he recounted every flirt he shared with her, every fantasy, and every idle thought about her in the suit, now put on full display for him. Well… not counting the last 10% of the suit that still covered her most intimate areas.   
  
“Hi, James.” Tali gave him a wave, which she knew caused her breasts to bounce ever so slightly. In turn, that caused his gaze to shift downward from her glowing eyes. Likewise, Tali looked down to the human’s barely-covered crotch, to see the thin sheer fabric stretching over his impressive manhood. Every time she saw him or Joker, she had to note the strangeness of their penis when compared to the turians she preferred. Such an odd shape, and yet, so very familiar.   
  
Strange, because she had never found humans to be attractive, at least not in a general sense. Until now, at least, where she savored every look at their variety of skin colors, blemishes, curves, and even the hairs on individuals like Vega. Hell, she had never even looked so much at other females until the last week. Human, Asari, or otherwise. Before this turn of events, she might have taken some human individuals to a sealed room and opened a few strategic parts of her clothing to them, but not many. Maybe because they lacked the carapace and mandibles of certain other life forms. Or perhaps it was the weird number of fingers and toes at the end of their strange limbs. Also their soft furry bodies and round faces that lacked the identity marks and glowing eyes like her species.   
  
But after EDI had proved to her what four fingers and a thumb could do for her, Tali considered her opinion thoroughly changed.   
  
"So, you enjoying life aboard the SSV Sex Slave?" He asked, trying to mask his embarassment over his outrage and the absurdity of their shared situation.   
  
“I cannot complain. I take it you’re hungry as well?” She slinked forward. The bare metal deck plates beneath her feet caused her to shiver. But the rising heat in her body suppressed most of it.  
  
“Uh, yeah. I thought maybe after yesterday, when Shepard and I… when she, y’know, brushed against me… that I could still get something from the pantry.”   
  
“Ah, yes. I might have assumed the same.” Tali took another step toward the human, and this time, she didn’t hide her gaze as she looked down. He might have been playing the sheepish, chivalrous young man, but his body told a different story. All of the other women on the ship kept themselves as covered as possible, given EDI’s ridiculous new “uniforms”. Tali defied them.   
  
“I guess I’d find myself in the same situation.” Tali continued, though she knew that to be a lie. A rather big lie. But it had the intended effect of causing more blood to rush to Vega’s crotch. “Let me help.”   
  
“Oh, wait, you don’t… oh lord.” Vega managed to stammer as Tali rushed to his side, pressed her bare breasts against his arm, and reached out to pull his cock out of his thin shorts. “Oh… wait… you don’t…!”  
  
Since EDI’s decree, most of the crew did their required sexual contact in private, hiding their brief trysts behind closed doors or in “clinical” settings where they’d brush their hands or thighs against the other’s genitals and then go their separate ways. Given that it fulfilled the AI’s requirements, no one felt like taking it any further.   
  
Tali had no such inhibitions. Not since EDI took over. And she didn’t care to ask why.   
  
Her slender hand wrapped around the human cock and in full view of the ship, started to stroke up and down the warm, solid length. Anyone who walked into the crew deck would see them, and Tali would have it no other way.   
  
“Tali, you can… I mean… oh shit…” He tried to speak in the face of the stimulation.   
  
“Oh come on, James. You’ve wanted me to do this for years.” Tali teased as she tested his girth against her well-practiced experience with Garrus. Turians were bigger on average, but the human was no slouch in that area. And the shape of it felt familiar yet alien to her. Not as warm as she was used to, but the heat from his body almost compared to a Turian’s. At least in that area. Tali’s grin widened as she heard Vega’s breathing change with every confident stroke. So he had many of the same responses as other males. Good to know.   
  
It didn’t take long for James to let out a deep, wanton noise from his throat, and Tali felt his tense muscles grow even tauter as he reached climax. Perhaps a minute. She hoped it was just from the wish fulfillment mixed with the public indecency of her brazen act, and not a general hint toward human stamina.   
His release covered her hand, then shot outward to cover the top of the nearby cooking surface. One spurt of white fluid. Then two. A third. One last time, Tali compared it to her previous experience. His muscles in that area were as strong as his others, as Garrus never shot his seed with such… vigor. Turians also produced a larger volume, though their fluids were not nearly as thick or creamy looking.   
  
“Hmm, maybe tomorrow I’ll make sure to take one of those Reversal pills, and we’ll do something a bit more fun.” Tali purred into Vega’s ear as she let go of his softening manhood. “You’d better be ready.”   
  
“I… um, sure. Tali. Thanks.” Vega managed to say as his dark cheeks flushed with heat and a deep crimson hue. Without her prompting, he tucked himself back into the dark shorts that left nothing to the imagination, and Tali marveled at a small dark patch that formed near the tip of his covered penis. Aftershocks? Or perhaps he kept going? Either way, that opened many new ideas for her.   
  
James wasted no time in reaching for the nearby roll of paper towels, and handed a section of it for Tali to clean herself. He used another to clean his sperm from the counter top, using motions she guessed were very well practiced.   
  
“But what about Garrus?” He asked.  
  
“Oh, I promise he won’t mind at all.”   
  
  
***  
  
Food obtained, which included a pack of Turian-grade ration packs bought directly from Palaven’s top manufacturer (Garrus’ favorite) and a bowl full of Niqtua fruit grown on one of the wild orchards of Rannoch, Tali made her way back down to the engineering deck. Her mind raced with her sudden encounter with Vega, and she couldn’t stop her chest from fluttering with every shallow breath. Why had she felt no remorse, no second thoughts about grabbing her crewmate’s cock and jerking him in public? Such acts were akin to treason in the fleet, considering the dangerous nature of exposure. And just about every civilized world in the galaxy prohibited such behavior. Yet it’s exactly what she did. Would she have stopped if someone entered the space at the same time?  
  
She doubted it.  
  
What was going on with her?  
  
Given that the Normandy’s entire crew complement now just consisted of a handful of people, Tali had no reason to stop using the room she often used as her personal space. They had no missions to attend, no extra parameters to adhere to. EDI just wanted them to be like this for as long as she felt it appropriate. Sure, Tali no longer needed to spend hours decontaminating and sterilizing every millimeters of the space, but her equipment remained adhered to the walls. Just in case. And  the locks remained, as did all of the other mechanisms.   
  
Which suited her just fine, as Garrus was still chained as he had been in the cargo bay a week ago. Locked in shackles in one corner of the modest space, unable to escape by any means, save Tali and EDI’s mutual consent.   
  
He also remained naked, as he had no need for clothes anymore.   
  
She wasn’t a monster, though. Garrus didn’t spend his days locked in an uncomfortable or humiliating pose. Nor was he stuck in that part of the room. He could move about as he pleased, he just couldn’t leave. Oh, and his arms were shackled together, just in case he tried to use his superior strength against her.   
  
“Tali, please, you have to look at what you’re doing.” The turian said in his gorgeous two-toned voice as she entered. He always began their days with this speech, as if his empty words would do anything to change the situation. “We have to stop this. We need to get to Shepard and put an end to EDI.”   
  
“Maybe later, Garrus.” Tali responded with a bored tone and a deep yawn. “For now, I’m hungry. And I know after last night, you are, too.”   
  
He could have fed himself even with his arms chained together, but Tali enjoyed taking the responsibility. It allowed her to watch him engage in an act many Turians did as fast as possible, to better get back to their duties. While the species in front of her had many intimate practices and rituals, food almost never had a place in them. And fortunately, Garrus knew better than to resist her as she raised one of the ration bars to his mandibles. Maybe it was his combat training, or perhaps he just kept thinking that one day she would see his side and together they would fight their way out of this situation. So he kept himself strong no matter what, even if he had to humiliate himself by being fed small chunks of food like a fledgling.   
  
Once finished, Tali set the bowl of fruit aside and reached her hand down between the Turian’s legs. Garrus often kept himself crouched in a corner, as if trying to hide his nudity from her and the ship, but he couldn’t hide from her. Who knew Turians could be so self-conscious? They were far from the fleshy examples of humanity and Quarian that walked around the rest of the ship.   
  
“Oh, you’re ready so soon?” Tali asked as her hands pushed between his scaled thighs to her prize. This was the other half of their midday ritual. And Tali’s grin widened as she realized this would be her second helping of male satisfaction. And with the same hand. How would Garrus feel if he knew that the skin touching his growing erection had just been in contact with human penis? The thought alone made her already drenched lower lips ache with need.   
  
“Please, see reason.” He breathed even as he succumbed to full arousal. “You can’t keep doing this. What if EDI fails? If she’s not capable of interfacing with your systems, you’ll die. I don’t want you to die, Tali.”  
  
“Don’t be silly, Garrus.” Tali popped a bite-size chunk of fruit in her mouth. The juice from the hefty bite flowed out from her pillowy lips and down her chin. “Just enjoy this.”  
  
Just like she had done with James, Tali began to stroke up and down the familiar length of hot Turian flesh. Now this she was familiar with. And this she knew very well. Including the most sensitive spots. Like if she pinched her two fingers together just below the tip… ah, the sound of his pleasured gasps mixed with a tiny amount of pain was all she needed to hear.   
  
She put the bowl aside and reached down with her free hand to undo the clasps of her suit remnant. In this room, she could remove it, just like she always did before the sudden change in her life. And in this room, she now had the physical embodiment of everything she had fantasized about. Just like EDI promised. Why would she ever change her mind about this?   
  
It took no time at all for the suit to fall from her hips, leaving Tali just as nude as Garrus. A half-second later, she straddled his hips and felt his impressive length enter her.   
  
Yes, Tali enjoyed the new normal aboard the Normandy. She could not understand why the rest of the crew seemed so reluctant.


	15. Chapter 15

The moment Sam nodded her head in the cargo bay, she knew her life had come to an end. A promising career, the life of a war hero, the promise of millions of credits and retirement to a home with a picket fence and a wife to share it with. Done. Traded for a new existence under the perverted gaze of a thoroughly malfunctioning AI, and the scornful malaise of the others now trapped with her.   
  
Once she silently begged for EDI to remain in this state, breaking the crew’s unified rejection of this new life, the shackles and gag had been removed from her body, still in full view of her shocked fellows. Likewise, Vega had been freed, but he scuttled to join the group of others as they took steps away from Sam and their new relentless overlord. All of them naked like her, or at least dressed in clothes so ridiculously revealing or sexualized that they might as well have been nude. Naked both physically, and in the way their glares all turned to Sam, whose cheeks flushed red-hot as she realized what she had done.   
  
That was a week ago.   
  
Though she had not felt the weight of the cuffs and chains since that brief, terrifying time in the cargo bay, Sam knew that it had been yet another trade. Because it didn’t take long for her to realize what that tape on her body had done to her. Every time she thought about the nanomachines swimming inside her body, inside her most sensitive and private anatomy, Sam’s muscles shivered and she gagged from somewhere deep in her stomach. To know that there were others like that on the ship, all slaved to EDI’s will, made her shame grow until it hung like an ocean above her head.   
  
She couldn’t even control when and how she got aroused. Not that she had much control these days, thanks to all the previous manipulation. Nobody had any control over anything.   
  
Those were always her first thoughts as she awoke in her bed, alone in the crew quarters. With so much of the crew left behind on Illium, and with the way the rest of those on board felt about her, no one dared spend a night in Sam’s proximity. Shepard had her quarters, of course. Joker always slept in the cockpit. The others found their own spaces to call their own, since they had an entire ship to spread out in. This gave Sam ample opportunity to groan and screech into her pillow, because she knew no one could hear.  
  
Once that was out of the way, she tossed the thin sheet off her body, because EDI had raised the ambient temperature inside the ship to accommodate for everyone’s lack of clothing, and stood nude in the artificial light. One of the first things EDI had decreed was that the crew would all sleep without any clothing at all. Every night before lying down, the crew was ordered to remove their thin coverings and place them somewhere nearby. And of course, all lockers, containers, and receptacles had been locked at EDI’s command. So no one had any access to their own clothing or tools, save what the AI let them have. Which wasn’t much. And never for long.  
  
While everyone slumbered, EDI’s mobile platform gathered all of the allowed clothing and send it through the ship’s laundry. When the Normandy hosted a full crew roster, there had been a schedule everyone kept to. Batches were done in a regular cycle, and if you missed your turn, you were out of luck for at least a week. With such a small number of people aboard now, and their entire wardrobe reduced to a pile of cloth you could hold in one hand if you bunched it all together, EDI could clean everyone’s clothes at night and returned them before they awoke. Which was a godsend considering what they all endured on a daily basis.  
  
As Sam stood up and walked to the neat pile of tight, dark clothing laid out in front of her bunk, she thought back to a week before. When EDI’s worst behavior had been just a voice in that damned earpiece, reciting erotic fiction at all hours. Sam had been forced to run back to her locker at least twice a day to change underpants, lest she soak through her pants and run afoul of Shepard’s strict code of uniform conduct. Now, she only had  _this_  to wear. And somehow, Sam guessed that these thin coverings weren’t exactly hers, either. The AI most likely ensured that the men and women respectively wore each other’s clothes on a rotating basis, given they were a universal size, and could stretch to fit any body type. It would be just one extra layer of humiliation on top of so many others.   
  
Or maybe excitement. If these were worn by Shepard yesterday…   
  
Sam groaned as she slipped the too-small panties up her legs. By their nature, they produced a slight camel toe no matter how she wore them. If she tried pulling them higher to the level she felt most comfortable, it just made the visual worse. But if she tried pulling them down to lessen that effect, she ended up exposing the top of her mound. A lose-lose situation of the worst kind. The bikini-style top wasn’t such a hassle, but the thin fabric ensured that a casual glance showed the dark outlines of her areolae. And when she got cold or aroused… like now… her tight nipples could not be concealed.    
  
The choker she waited for the end, just to delay the sensation of putting it on for as long as possible. Sam hated the feeling of things on her neck. Even wearing dress blues during her time in the military bothered her. Forget any ideas of being choked in bed. Samantha gulped down a mouthful of emptiness as she felt the thin strip of cloth settle on her neck. Then she exhaled a breath she didn’t know she was holding.   
  
Now dressed in her new “uniform”, Traynor took a step out of the empty crew quarters, into an equally devoid-of-life crew deck. A sigh of relief escaped her lips. This entire situation wouldn’t have happened if she had been just a little stronger. If she had lived up to her own mantra, to be a little more like Shepard, she could have told EDI ‘no’. Instead, this was all her fault.   
  
One step into the empty space. Two steps. And then Sam felt the first twinge between her legs, something she would feel for the rest of the day. Damned EDI! Her knees knocked together on their own as she sucked in a deep gasp, then let it out. A moment later, and most of the feeling passed, save for a low, almost-imperceptible buzz focused on her clit.   
  
Her first stop was not to the galley to grab breakfast, like had done every day in her old life, because EDI ensured that was impossible. By decree of the AI in charge of them all, everyone had a task to perform before she allowed them access to their well-stocked pantry.    
  
She made her way to the medbay, where Sam could see Doctor Michel through the large window. The other woman sat behind her desk, typing away at her terminal as if she still had a mountain of medical duties to attend to. Like many members of the crew, Michel very quickly found life with no responsibilities or obligations to be a massive shock, and so threw herself into whatever work she could find. Even if it was just writing reports to recipients who would never receive any communication from her because EDI had such tight control over all communications. As to what exact reports Michel might have been writing, Sam could not guess. One reason she went into tech instead of medical school was the fact she hated biology class. So anything written by a trained medical professional went right over her head.   
  
The medbay door slid open without fuss, and Sam got a full glimpse of the ship’s doctor. Chloe Michel wore the same choker and sheer top as Samantha, but her lower body had a very different garment from the rest of the crew. The very same chastity belt she saw in the cargo bay still clung tight to the other woman’s hips. Sam could not tell if she was allowed to remove it at night, though somehow she doubted it. Faint red lines showed on the poor woman’s waistline, perhaps spots where the unyielding piece of equipment dug into her hip as she slept.   
  
“Oh, hello, Samantha.” The doctor said with a flat, monotone voice. She did not turn away from the terminal. “Make your way to the table, I’ll be with you shortly.”  
  
“Hello, Doctor.” Traynor replied as she made her way to the nearest exam table. This was the second part of her routine. “How are you today?”   
  
“Oh, fine, just fine.” Michel’s flat tone changed in an instant. Manic, with a hint of frustration that ran deep into her soul. “I haven’t enjoyed myself this much in several years. Thanks to you.”  
  
Sam rolled her eyes. This, too, had become routine. Chloe had never been one for direct confrontation. Even the rumors of how she met Shepard involved being caught in the crossfire between Garrus and some Citadel thugs because she had been too reluctant to deal with the problem herself. So instead, the Frenchwoman vented her ire toward Sam through this odd combination of passive aggression and manic, pent-up frustration. Still, at least she talked to her, unlike the others.   
  
“Did you know I haven’t spoken with my mother in almost two weeks, Samantha?” Chloe continued with her worrying display of false happiness as she tapped her terminal off and stood up. “My mother who survived the war only to develop breast cancer one year later? Who I have been trying to comfort as she began her early treatments?”   
  
“I… I’m sorry.” Sam said as she pulled herself onto the exam table and spread her legs. In any other setting, she would have felt uncomfortable, exposed, and vulnerable in this pose with such little clothing. But since she did it in the medbay, she could pretend this was a normal physical examination, which happened all the time in the military. She even put her feet in the extended stirrups, which pushed her knees ever farther apart. “I didn’t know.”  
  
“Oh, of course you wouldn’t.” Michel stepped toward the nearby cabinet full of medical supplies and retrieved a small disinfectant bottle. With practiced motions, she cleaned her left hand of all contaminants with a quick rub of the liquid. “Just like you didn’t know that thanks to your deal with EDI, I haven’t been able to remove this… wonderful device on my body for the past seven days.”   
  
Sam spoke before she could reign her words in. “Does that mean…? How do you go to the bathroom?” The moment she realized what she had said, her entire body contorted along with her face in the largest cringe she had ever experienced. This was why she always preferred to keep to herself, and relegate most of her social interaction to the extranet. Where she could at least edit her text-based messages before sending them.   
  
“I’m so very glad you asked that question! Because I was able to learn that this chastity belt was designed by a Quarian engineer. And it uses the same technology in their suits to keep their bodies sanitary during their extended uses. There’s a mass effect field powered by a micro-battery on my lower body at all times, disassembling everything that’s not my skin in a matter of moments.”   
  
Despite her best efforts to think of other things, Sam could not help but imagine the hell that Chloe now lived with. Locked away, unable to even take care of her most basic needs. And yet, through technology, she could actually handle it anywhere and everywhere she stood if she chose to. The mass effect fields running through the inside of the belt ensured that her skin remained clean, undamaged, and sanitary. No matter what happened. Even then, Sam remembered seeing the doctor shuffle toward the women’s restroom a handful of times over the past week. Did that mean Chloe still sat down, but then had to… go all over herself and let the belt handle it?   
  
“At least it’s clean.” She tried to chuckle, to bring any sort of legitimate levity to the doctor’s tension.  
  
“You’re right. Of course. You’ve always been so smart, Samantha.” Chloe closed her eyes and gave a fake, wide grin. The doctor then took in a deep breath and approached Sam. With a quick, almost imperceptible motion, Michel swiped her cleaned finger over Samantha’s half-covered pussy almost like she were using an ancient credit chit reader. The briefest of contact, but enough for Sam to emit an involuntary squeal thanks to her over-sensitive folds and throbbing clit. Just a half-second, and both of them were now welcome to the ship’s food stores as per EDI’s order. Part of their new routine. Due to Michel’s predicament with the belt, the Doctor could only eat when she touched someone else. And no one else was willing to help Sam these days, except a Doctor whose oaths prevented her from seeing a person starve. Even a person she loathed.   
  
It took a moment for Traynor to compose herself, even after the all-too-quick touch to her nethers. Michel, however, needed no such time to cool down. Once her fingers brushed against Traynor, she turned around and went back to her desk. The terminal flickered back to life a half-second later. With Sam’s mind in such an addled state, she could not help but stare at the doctor’s hips as she settled into her chair with the belt pushing against her. Again, her imagination ran away, and Sam could not help but wonder what she might do if locked like that. Would she be able to handle it?   
  
Doubtful. Especially now.   
  
“If you’ll see yourself out.” Doctor Michel said from her terminal, not bothering to turn around. All of the cheer had left her voice, left with nothing but cold contempt. She no longer needed bedside manner, even in such an extreme state.   
  
“Yes, of course. Thank you.” Sam mumbled as she disentangled herself from the table and put her bare feet on the deck. Every time she did so, she shivered from both the shock of cold against her skin, but also the readjustment of her whole body after such an inviting touch. Just the feeling of her thighs rubbing together made her mind explode. Thanks to EDI.  
  
Sam could now get her breakfast. Unlike the sparse rations everyone survived on during the war, or even the military-standard diet that Shepard had preferred in recent months, EDI bought an extravagant selection for the crew, and stuffed it into all of the available storage she could find. Alien food. Earth delicacies. All colors and flavors possible. Sam had no idea where the AI got the resources to do so, but she did not question it. Why would she? How long had it been since Sam had real ice cream while on an extended voyage? Or a fresh apple instead of preserved chunks swimming in sugar syrup?   
  
Today, however, Sam wanted something different. Just a quick meal bar, full of oats and maybe some dark chocolate chips for a little bit of sweet. The kind of stuff you ate while pretending to exercise, and often left crumbs all over your shirt when you were done. Fortunately, nobody aboard the ship was allowed to wear shirts anymore.   
  
Just as she reached the pantry and reached out to grab the closed door, a second hand waved in front of her, intent on the same destination. Long, slender, with pale skin dotted by freckles.   
  
“Oh, Shepard!” Sam gasped as she looked to her side. The former soldier and combat trained legend had approached from out of Sam’s periphery, and had been silent as a whisper as she did so. Probably a side effect of the fact no one wore shoes anymore. Shepard couldn’t stomp around in her boots to announce her presence. Instead, her N7 infiltration training ensured she made no noise at all.   
  
“Sam.” The former Commander nodded, then looked away from Traynor. She brushed the specialist’s hand away from the pantry, then reached inside for the very same box of bars she had been set on plundering.  
  
With her mind still swimming from Michel’s touch, Traynor’s gaze drifted to the impressive visage to her side. Shepard, with her athletic physique that reached the perfection only seen in ancient statues. Wearing something so small and tight that it might as well have been painted onto her body. Just this vision alone brought almost half of Sam’s fantasies to life.   
  
Even as Shepard turned away from her, a nutrition bar in hand, Sam’s gaze just changed to look at the other woman’s shapely ass. Not covered at all thanks to the tiny underwear, just like how Sam’s own garment rode up her backside. That discomfort, however, brought about a heavenly sight. Even Shepard’s bottom had freckles.   
  
Shepard had to leave her field of view entirely for Sam to snap out of it and go for her own breakfast. Fortunately, there were still a few bars left, and she took her share before turning from the food storage. She had a full day of access before EDI locked her out again, no need to be greedy.   
  
Bar in hand, she began to unwrap it as she made her way to the lift. She kept her eyes locked on the small morsel, and put more focus and effort on the packaging than it deserved. All because she dared not let her mind wander too much. Not now. After what EDI had done to her, Michel’s brief touch and the fantasies swarming her mind, Sam knew her tiny underwear would be unable to hide her body’s natural reaction to all that stimulus. And her body was a half second from forcing her to sit down on the deck and rub herself to an explosive climax. Even here on the crew deck, where anyone could see her. The buzzing never stopped.   
  
Just as she tore the packaging off the bar, Sam turned the last corner and entered the lift… next to Shepard who had done the same thing. Sam’s cheeks flushed with more heat than she thought a human capable of as she looked away from her breakfast, up to the commander.   
  
“CIC?” Shepard asked without skipping a beat, her voice calm and professional as it ever had been.   
  
“Yes. I mean, yes, ma’am.” Traynor said.   
  
Shepard tapped the control behind her and set the lift to take the two of them up a level, to the Normandy’s near-empty control center. Oh god. If her mind had been filled with fantasies before, now they were like a roiling volcano, pouring over one another over and over. Even the absurd ones, like being trapped in a lift with Shepard, with nothing to do to pass the time but fuck each other’s brains out. That had been the plot of at least seven Shepard-related fanfics she could remember reading before this hell. Before EDI made it a very tangible reality.   
  
The two of them mirrored each other’s mannerisms as only people who had spent long periods of time together could. They both raised the bar up, took a bite, and put it down almost in unison. Almost as if they weren’t stuck in such a ridiculous situation, with AI-controlled nanomachines swarming in their bodies, and were back to business as usual. Hell, they had done this so many times over the past few years that Sam could not count every instance. The only difference being that they did not converse like they often did. In times past, they’d have loads to talk about just before they began their duties. Shipboard reports, speculation about upcoming missions, tech chat, even a few moments of gossip when Shepard broke her usual veneer and couldn’t help but engage in a moment of excited chatter before getting to work. But today, like everyone else on the ship, Commander Shepard did everything in her power to not engage with Sam except when she had no other choice. She had come to accept that.   
  
A moment later, and the lift finished its journey. Both women walked forward as one, then approached their separate stations. As if they were still living their old lives, and weren’t jiggling their exposed bits to the entire universe.   
  
That was what Samantha needed right now, more than she realized until she touched the activation control on her console. If she could focus on something external, she could ignore the buzzing between her legs and the stunning display of femininity at her side. She needed a goal, a project. Something like the earpiece that had once been a promise of a much better future, but had all lead her to this. She had failed to stop EDI before, when she made that stupid attempt to shut the AI down in her core. In the end, she was made a fool and then forced to watch as the jaws of the machine’s trap sprung around her, swallowing her whole until she willingly damned her friends.    
  
Maybe she shouldn’t be like Shepard after all. Maybe she needed to think like Samantha Traynor. And what Sam did best was look into comms.   
  
Unfortunately, all of her expertise ran in tandem with the systems EDI had been originally designed to monitor. Shipboard communication, external pings, data analysis. It was written in her name: Enhanced Defense Intelligence. EDI was built to do the job of a full team of specialists like Sam, and then some. All comms were monitored, all text messages were read by her, and even calls over an earpiece had a modicum of the AI’s presence. No one could say or do anything without EDI knowing about it.   
  
But wait… EDI monitored sound and text… but what did she do with the visual? Obviously EDI could tap into the internal sensors and read the full EM spectrum of everything aboard. It’s how she kept the engines regulated without a full engineering staff… and how she could tell when everyone around her was aroused even when they said they weren't. But what about plain visible light? Its uses were rather limited compared to the wealth of information given off by other sources of radiation. Did EDI even see the world through photographic lenses?  
  
Samantha had been a part of the Normandy’s refit crew just before the Reaper war. And while her specialization had been the intercom system and other long-range communication technologies, she remembered poking her head around the other departments now and again. Particularly the security system. Double particularly the way the internal cameras monitored crew’s movements. At the time, she had just used that knowledge of have fun. She played games with camera 4 in the CIC, seeing if she could get it to lose track of her if she wiggled or danced in strange ways. (When no one else was aboard, of course.)  
  
One thing she had learned, but never put much thought into at the time, was that the cameras did not see EVERYTHING. They were not x-ray machines, radar telescopes, or even infrared sensors. Just visual spectrum devices for the human security crew to look over if they ever needed to replay footage. If you turned your body around or stood in the right spot, you could work or speak, or do just about anything and not be seen.   
  
Nothing too fancy, of course. And nothing that might draw the ire of an always-watching AI. Just simple actions like writing notes with an actual pencil on a piece of paper. Notes that communicated her plans to people that walked by. And notes that could be folded up and tossed into the nearest receptacle as needed. Or burned. Or even eaten, as some old stupid spy vids sometimes showed.  
  
And so Samantha pressed the commands necessary to bring up a local feed of the CIC’s internal camera system. Indeed, camera 4 still locked on her corner of the room, and swept over a large swathe of it until it bled into the sights of cameras 3 and 5. And on that clear image, she could see her own backside, bisected by the humiliating underwear, and the tiny dark strap of the “bra” across her back. But it didn’t see her front. Her body blocked all visual reference toward her station. And if she pivoted herself to the right… yes, camera 3 could longer register her workspace. Just her body and the large holographic display beyond it.   
  
Now she needed to test. She put her hands in front of her, ostensibly as if she were about to type some more on the holographic keyboard. But instead, she made several lewd and insulting gestures. Most of them from Earth, but a few she knew would be blasphemous to any Asari that might have seen it. No matter how vigorous her motions were, the cameras saw none of it. Just her back. And her buttocks swaying a little too hard if she moved too much. While EDI didn’t police the way the crew acted as such, Sam felt sure that she’d be questioned for performing such gestures very much out of character.   
  
“Something you want to tell me, Traynor?” Shepard asked with a raised eyebrow from her position. The sudden intrusion of sound broke Samantha’s concentration, and she whirled around to face the commander. For a moment, her lungs froze and her heart thudded against her ribs before she managed to calm the spike of panic.   
  
“Uh, no, ma’am. I mean… not really.”   
  
Shepard turned away from Sam, though kept her puzzled expression. “If you say so. You know, I don’t even know why you come up here anymore. EDI’s got control of the ship, we don’t need a comms specialist these days. Don’t you think you’d be more useful somewhere else?” It didn’t slip out like a threat, but the implication hung in the air.   
  
“I think I still have some worth up here.” She blurted out, not unlike her fast mouth babbled in the medbay. No, she couldn’t be dissuaded so soon! She knew she was on to something!  
  
“Oh, is that so?” The monotone voice came out almost in the typical “Shepard growl”, which had caused many a merc or terrorist to lose his cool and pee his pants before surrendering.   
  
Sam had to act fast. She needed to write, and put it down in a way so her body blocked the message from the cameras yet could hopefully draw Shepard’s eye. But in this day and age, paper and writing utensils were almost unheard of. Most everything was done via holo-interfaces. And there was no way for Sam to explain everything she had just done without alerting EDI to the whole thing. Nor did she think Shepard would go along with the plan long enough to block her own station from the cameras so they could write back and forth with impunity.   
  
Her eyes raced over her console. She had almost nothing there but plain desk and a handful of datapads, the curse of a hyper-efficient worker!   
  
Wait! Aha!   
  
In a corner of her station, hidden in a pocket behind the terminal, sat a white cylinder with a black cap. About the size of a toothbrush, but not quite as long. A marker! An honest-to-goodness marker, the kind manufactured for centuries on Earth. And still a perfect tool to write temporary measurements on a bulkhead, or placement marks for a young soldier who wanted to maximize the space allotted to her on a small space vessel. How long had it been sitting there? Day one of her assignment to this ship? It didn’t matter at all.   
  
“Yes, and I can prove it, if you’ll let me.” Traynor balled every ounce of confidence into those few words, every shred of self-worth and bravery she had. Sam had failed to be like Shepard a week ago, so now she would be herself. And if it didn’t work, then she’d have a funny story to tell EDI, because she wrote the words  **EDI CAN’T SEE THIS**  on her desk in big blocky letters. In the exact position her security feed said that both cameras could not detect, so long as she held herself in such a way that her ass and torso blocked their vision.   
  
“Sam, what the hell are you do…” Shepard’s voice died in her throat as she witnessed the demonstration. At first, the commander’s growing ire drowned out her curiosity. Then her eyebrows rose in unison as she no doubt understood the potential sedition against their perverted captor happening just before their eyes. And for a moment, Traynor allowed herself to look up and take in the sparkling emerald pools, and let a few congratulatory fantasies fill her mind. After all, what other reward could she expect for this?   
  
“You know what, specialist.” Shepard said as she spent immense effort in recomposing herself. Well, as much as one could be composed while wearing fetish wear. “I’ve changed my mind. Maybe we do need you up here. Carry on.”   
  
“Thank you, Commander.”  
  
Without a washcloth, or sleeves, or even a shirt to wipe her markings away, Sam had to rub her hand on the desk to smudge the words. In the moment, she hadn’t realized the effort she would need to hide the evidence from EDI. And now she had nothing but her palm to clean it. Her vigorous motions showed as some… unique wiggling on the cameras. And she somehow knew that Shepard had not turned away from her, either. And for a moment, Sam felt very aware of the flimsy nature of what she wore, and of the nanite-infused sensation on her genitals. On the other hand, Shepard was the Commander for a reason. She had always been able to see the potential of the people and resources around her. It kept her alive and saved the galaxy on several occasions. She had to face the facts that Shepard wasn’t looking at her tits, but was just formulating the best way to use this all-too-simple method to fool the most advanced AI in existence. And maybe win back their freedom.  
  
No matter how hard she rubbed, Sam could not remove the discoloration from the marker. The skin on her hands couldn’t pick up enough of the residue left behind. And for a moment, a new kind of panic set it. It had been a rush of adrenaline a moment before, when Shepard addressed her. This felt like a meter-long shard of ice that drove into the very core of her. If she couldn’t hide every shred of this plan from EDI, she would find out. And if the AI had no problems with stripping, restraining, and imposing horrific demands on the crew when she wanted to be kind, what might she do to punish them?   
  
Dark streaks in random patterns covered her work station. From the lip of the oversize table to halfway under her holographic interface. By this point, she did nothing more than push the inky residue back and forth around the surface. Would it be enough? Or could EDI somehow reconstruct the chaotic pattern and read what had been written? For a moment, Sam considered stripping her clothes off and using them to clean the last of the marker away. But that would probably make her look even guiltier.  
  
Wait!   
  
“Shepard, could you come here a moment?” Sam asked.   
  
“Of course.” Shepard responded and turned from her station. From the way she had been standing, Traynor guessed that the Commander had brought up her own camera feed and had started to find a window between the cameras pointed at her in the CIC. Perhaps when Sam called her, Shepard realized the value in seeing how much space two bodies close together could block.   
  
“I wanted your opinion on this.” Sam said as she brought the marker back down on her station, tracing over the streaks and marks that covered it. “EDI said she wanted us to explore our passions instead of obsessing over work, right? She didn’t say anything about exactly how we could do that.”   
  
“Correct, Samantha.” EDI’s voice filtered over the comm, which caused both women to shudder. “I implore everyone aboard the Normandy to express themselves in any way they see fit. Preferably in a sexual manner. I will provide any resources you require.”  
  
Sam drew like a child for a moment, connecting the scribbles she left with her hands as if she were deliberately making an abstract work of art on a piece of absurdly expensive equipment. But when she felt sure she had a good base to start, she wrote two more words in blocky letters in the center of the image.  
  
 **LEAVE NOW**  
  
As soon as she knew Shepard understood the message, she swiped her hand over it, adding the new ink to the mess in front of her. It turned her hand black, covered in so much ink and whatever else the marker left behind.   
  
For a moment, Shepard didn’t respond. Instead, her gorgeous green eyes darted back and forth across the CIC. “You know what, Traynor. I think I’d prefer it if you didn’t keep drawing on my CIC. How about we go to my quarters and see what I have on hand?”  
  
“Yes, ma’am.” Sam couldn’t stop herself from smiling. It worked! Not quite a redemption, but she had gotten someone to speak more than a handful of words to her, and she had proven that there was a chance, a very small one, that they had a single advantage in their struggle against EDI. If they could set up some kind of primitive network of hidden notes and secret communication, the crew could work together and put a stop to the AI. These were the people that killed the Reapers, after all. They just needed a way to talk to one another and they could do miracles.  
  
The ride up the lift was as silent as their previous one, though not because of lingering anger. Just the sense that any erroneous talk would be understood by EDI, and this entire radical idea thrown out the airlock faster than they could blink. Shepard had been in so many hazardous situations, so many struggles where the control of information meant life or death, that she took to this with the same air of purpose she had when fighting Batarians, Collectors, or Reapers. Sam followed in her footsteps. Not like a trained puppy, but more like a soldier in her own right. A burgeoning freedom fighter who had just sprayed their first graffiti on the wall of an oppressive building. She wasn’t like Shepard, she was Traynor, mistress of information.  
  
The steps toward Shepard’s door were likewise as silent, until EDI’s voice cut over the comm the moment Shepard activated the lock.   
  
“Any access to the captain’s cabin must be done without clothing.”   
  
Shepard sighed and lowered her head. She didn’t turn to Sam before speaking. “This… has been a thing for a while. Just go with it.”   
  
“Of course, ma’am.”  
  
If Traynor hadn’t been dripping before, this set her off like a torrent. It was bad enough being in revealing clothing at all hours in front of Commander Shepard. Stripping down in front of her made any manipulation from the nanites feel like an ice bath in comparison. The urge Sam felt just a few minutes earlier on the crew deck, to sit down and stroke herself to rabid orgasm, had never felt stronger. And yet, she had to resist it. Just for a little longer. Maybe Shepard had honest-to-god paper in her private sanctum. And pencils! Anything that could produce a temporary note that a visual camera could never see. And as soon as she got her hands on it, she could retreat to the empty crew quarters and masturbate until she passed out, her thoughts filled with the images in front of her right now.  
  
Shepard ripped the clothing off her body with zero fanfare, and then just tossed the revealing garments on the deck beside her. “EDI will pick it up.” She mumbled as she strode inside the now-unlocked room. Sam had to mentally remind herself to act like an adult several times before she regained control over her own limbs. For a moment, she even forgot about her own dressed state, as she tried to follow the naked Commander into her quarters without removing her clothes. She got within half a centimeter toward the door before it slammed shut and EDI spoke again with the exact same inflection.  
    
“Any access to the captain’s cabin must be done without clothing.”   
  
It probably took a nanosecond for Traynor to shrug out of the ridiculous clothes and lay them in a pile on top of Shepard’s. As soon as she did that, the door slid open, where the Commander continued to walk forward heedless of Sam’s momentary delay. The specialist had to force herself to look elsewhere, toward the fish tank or the full display of model space ships, just so she could enter the cabin without acting like a drooling teenager.   
  
Sam recalled all the times she had entered this space before. During the war, when she had to deliver important reports and sensitive intel directly from her station. Oh, and that one extremely embarrassing time when she tried to flirt her way into Shepard’s shower. She got her time in the private space, but she had to do it alone. The Commander didn’t seem interested at the time. Shepard had spent countless hours at the desk near the bathroom door, hunched over it just like she hunched over her terminal in the CIC. In times less clouded by lust, Sam could not comprehend the sheer volume of information that passed the Commander’s eyes during that hellish time. And to balance that ocean of paperwork with all those battles and firefights! If Sam hadn’t already been smitten by the other woman’s physical traits, she would have fallen for Shepard’s work ethic and dedication. Combine them both, and it was no wonder she had spent so much time on the extranet reading Shepard fanfictions and downloading less-than-legal Virtual Intelligencess with her voice pattern.   
And now, cramped in such a small room, naked, even if by force... Well, sometimes Traynor realized that life trapped with an insane AI wasn’t all bad.   
  
“Have you heard from Ashley at all?” Shepard approached her desk terminal without hesitation and tapped a command. From her position at the door, Sam saw that the monitor activated a very similar display to what she had done at her work station. Camera feeds in several different views, showing all of the angles the visual security system covered the room. Shepard’s quarters were not as well covered as the public areas of the ship, but they still had at least two conspicuous sensors monitoring all movement. And yet, when Shepard stood in front of the desk, yet again, the entire surface was obscured with a vision of a toned backside and freckled shoulders. Sam had to tell herself that she couldn’t just walk over and run her tongue over every single freckle she saw. Not now, at least.   
  
“No, ma’am. I can’t say I have.” Indeed, since that moment in the cargo bay where she had a brief moment wondering where Ashley had gone, Sam had not seen her. Though given the way the rest of the crew treated her these days, Traynor assumed that the other spectre had just gone out of the way to avoid her. Likewise, Liara only exited her quarters just long enough to feed or bathe herself, then almost sprinted back to her lair. The exact same behavior she had shown every day during the war and after.  
  
“Hm… maybe we’ll hear something from her in the near future.” Shepard spoke without speaking, letting the hope of this desperate plan come clear without becoming too suspicious. After a moment to ensure her body indeed blocked the camera, she turned from her desk, then peered over the rest of her quarters. “I think I have some actual paper stashed around somewhere. Grab a pen off the desk, will you?”   
  
The way she said it so calmly, so professionally. As if they weren’t trying to plan the downfall of one of their dear friends. In times past, it might have filled Traynor with confidence and spirit. Now it just shot straight between her legs. They turned to gelatin the instant Shepard told her to do something, and it took a mountain of effort to follow the directive. For a moment, her mind flashed back to the previous week, held by EDI, stood in front of her desperate friends while her body betrayed every instinct she ever had. This felt worse.   
  
Shepard moved away from the desk and down further into the room, only to start bending over and pulling various containers and drawers open. All in a search for something as innocuous as paper. Sam had to hold a hand over the side of her face just so she could finish her walk to the desk, where the terminal showed several views of the nude commander rummaging through her bedroom. It took another monumental amount of concentration just to grab a pen from a small plastic holder. Sam’s fingers were shaking.  
  
“So, did you have any ideas for what you wanted to draw?” Shepard asked, though she put a weird emphasis on ‘draw’, as if putting too much effort into the subterfuge.   
  
“Oh, I don’t know. I’ve never really been much into it until recently. I guess EDI really does want us to branch out.” Traynor confessed. At least she could mix the lies with the truth. EDI could tell when people lied.   
  
“Ain’t that the truth? But hey, no time like the present to learn a new skill, right?”   
  
“Exactly, ma’am.”   
  
Shepard’s head popped up from behind the glass display case that separated the desk from the rest of Shepard’s cabin. “You get the pen yet?”  
  
“Right here.” She said and held it up.   
  
“Good.” The head disappeared, and then the woman herself turned the corner, bare feet plodding on the deck. In her hand, a small blue notebook. Something one could hold in a single palm, or stuff into a shirt pocket if one needed. The kind of notebooks sold in bags, a single credit for a dozen of the things. Or handed out to Alliance trainees during their academic or technical training, just in case they wanted to jot down notes and didn’t have an omni-tool on hand. Sam had filled at least ten of them during her courses before the war. Mostly with notes, but sometimes doodles or idle thoughts she dared not speak aloud.   
  
Sam stood in the same spot she noticed Shepard had used to block the camera, and remained still as the commander tossed the notebook onto the hidden portion of the desk. Maybe it was a little too much for her horny mind to ask if Shepard would trust her enough to come into bodily contact. Still, it would be enough.  
  
“Give it a shot, Traynor.” Shepard commanded. “See if that works for you.”   
  
She opened the notebook to the first page, and then had to flip past several tiny sheets of paper filled with Shepard’s handwritten notes. Tons of words and numbers that meant nothing to the specialist, and might have been long forgotten by the commander herself. But she eventually found a blank page. And after sparing one last glance at the monitor to confirm the cameras could not see her, she wrote something she knew would have provoked an instant response if the AI were truly watching their every movement:  
  
 **FUCK EDI**  
  
Sam stood like a statue, not even breathing, as she waited for the comm to activate and the familiar, sultry, voice to reprimand her. One minute passed. A minute thirty.  
  
Nothing.   
  
“What have you got there?” Shepard asked as she edged closer.   
  
“Oh, not much.” Sam exhaled louder than she should have. And she had to stifle a giggle as she realized that she had succeeded. “Maybe I’m just not as into this as I thought.”   
  
“Oh, don’t be silly.” Shepard got so close that Sam felt the heat radiating off the other woman’s naked body. And she almost fainted when the soft skin of her breast slid against Sam’s shoulder. “I think this is exactly what you should be doing.”   
  
“Really, ma’am?”   
  
“Oh yeah. In fact… let me make a little alteration…”   
  
Sam didn’t realize that Shepard took the pen from her hand. She became too engrossed by the furnace of warmth at her side. The strong, confident breathing, and the way her voice slithered into Sam’s head. She didn’t even look down at the desk until she felt Shepard’s other hand, in a strong and powerful grip, force her head  to look down.   
  
 **FUCK ~~EDI~~ ME**  
  
“Ma’am, don’t you think we should-“  
  
“Shut up, Sam.” Shepard purred as she pounced. With the hand on the desk, she made sure to close the notebook before tossing the pen aside. Then with both free, she held both sides of Sam’s head just so she had full access to kiss the specialist with a primal ferocity. In mere moments, Traynor’s entire world focused on the alien, but extremely welcome sensation of Commander Shepard kissing her. Their bodies pressed together until Sam felt sure every inch of their skin had come into contact. And in a moment, she knew Shepard had pushed her backward. Toward the shower.   
  
Traynor closed her eyes as her heart thudded hard in her chest. She had to remind herself to breathe again when she felt the Commander’s lips part and her tongue slide against hers. Sam’s hands got over their shock in due course, and one of them rose to finally brush against those amazing freckled shoulders, brushing each tiny spot with her fingertips just like she imagined herself doing a thousand times before in all of her most depraved fantasies. The other hand went down, past the heavenly washboard of Shepard’s abs, over her trimmed bush, to the gushing wet torrent between the other woman’s legs, finally touching the spot she had dreamed about for years. And, oh god, she was probably more turned on than Sam! Given her own experience with the nanomachines, Traynor had to wonder how long Shepard had resisted the damning call, or the shame that wracked the other woman’s body, given Shepard threw herself so wantonly at someone she had been so angry with for an entire week.   
  
As Traynor's fingers pushed closer to her drenched entrance, Shepard made a noise that sent Sam to heaven, so she brushed harder against the Commander’s labia. Which in turn caused Shepard’s hands to drop from Sam’s face so she could curl and wrench in uncontrolled ecstasy. She even pulled back from their kiss just so she could let out a groan that might have alerted the entire ship if the cabin’s walls weren’t soundproofed. It had to have been EDI, Sam knew. The AI had done her insidious work on Sam all day, she would have done the same to the whole crew. But hell, they had just proven that EDI wasn’t the infallible overlord they thought her to be for the past week. Why not celebrate and blow off the steam EDI forced upon them?  
  
Sam had never been one to let someone else take the lead in situations like this. As she told Shepard so long ago, she played for keeps, and she never backed down when she wanted something. She could no longer be like Shepard, she had to be like Samantha Traynor. Sure, on the battlefield or on the job, she could be the quiet little soldier. In the bedroom, she was in charge.   
  
Sam flipped their bodies around until she was the one pushing Shepard backward, and she grinned when the other woman brushed against the frigid closed door of the bathroom. Shepard hissed as the cold metal touched her back, but she did not resist it. Sam’s manipulating fingers between the Commander’s legs pushed even deeper, teasing into her center without plunging too deep in. At the same time, her palm applied pressure to Shepard’s needy clit. The other hand Sam had been using to touch Shepard’s shoulders snaked around to grab for the other woman’s hands. And while they still brushed their tongues against one another, Sam wordlessly manipulated Shepard until her hands were above her head, mock-bound beneath Traynor’s insistence.   
  
There had been rumors circulating around the ship, and a few not-so-hidden moments where it was plain as day that Shepard and Joker had started some sort of regular thing ever since EDI took control. No one assumed romance, given Joker’s longtime relationship with the artificial woman. But anyone with a brain could see that EDI had given Joker a “real girl” to have sex with, given that the AI only had a metallic mobile platform to physically interact with him. In a way, it seemed so strange that someone as tough and headstrong as Commander Shepard would go along with such a thing, as if she were a sex doll or an Omega prostitute. But after EDI started malfunctioning and broadcasting Shepard’s extranet history to anyone who asked, and many others who didn’t, it made sense.   
  
And it turned out, Shepard seemed just as amenable to being ordered around by Traynor as she was being Joker and EDI’s plaything. At least, whenever she was as aroused as this. Maybe not all the time, and a small part of Sam’s mind warned her not to take it too far. But fuck it, she was just as hot and bothered and she needed this.  
    
“Shower. Now.” Traynor pulled back from the kiss to order the Commander around. Shepard just nodded, then let out another heavenly wail as Sam’s probing fingers went a centimeter deeper. She would have her triumphant moment in the Commander’s bathroom. Even if it took over a year, she finally got what she wanted.   
  
Somewhere along the line, the door opened and warm water flowed over the two women. And without any words at all, Shepard lowered herself to her knees, kissing down Sam’s torso the entire way. Of course she spent a little time at the specialist’s sensitive breasts, and each light kiss to her nipples set of a minor orgasm that only made the fire between her legs roar hotter. In the end, Sam had to grab a fistful of Shepard’s red hair and forced the other woman all the way down, until the most famous human in the galaxy had her full lips pressed onto Sam’s cunt.    
  
Deep in the fog of her lust, Sam reminded herself of the idea that got her to this point. Yes! Something… something about EDI… oh god Shepard’s tongue felt amazing… they could hide from the AI… fuck she couldn’t get enough of holding that distinctive red hair… maybe they’d be able to stop this… Shepard’s hips and ass made a perfect shape, just like the rest of her. And the freckles! She didn’t want this to stop. And by the way Shepard shoved her face harder against Sam, greedily lapping at her clit, it seemed maybe she didn’t want this to stop, either.   
  
In that moment, Sam didn’t care if just an hour earlier, Shepard’s mouth had been wrapped around Joker’s cock. She also didn’t care that there were millions of microscopic robots injecting shocks into her nerve endings, making each sensation as intense as all other sex she had ever had combined. Hell, she didn’t care if they were altering her body to make the rush of orgasm far more intense than she had ever experienced, clenching muscles that had never before flexed during orgasm. She slammed her back against the warm, soaked wall of the shower and dragged Shepard along with her so the other woman’s lips never left her folds, just so she could support herself as her body shattered into countless pieces.   
  
Sam usually came quietly. Some heavy breathing, maybe a few light noises she could mask or write off when she had no choice but to subtly masturbate when surrounded by sleeping crewmates in crowded quarters. But here, behind soundproofed walls, all but alone on a level of the ship few people ever entered, she let out a wail of her own that rivaled Shepard’s earlier noises. And perhaps because of the intensity, or maybe the nanites, or just the endless teasing and previous week of shameful sorrow due to her actions, she knew her lower body released with similar vigor. And in that moment, Sam’s mind flashed back to Doctor Michel, and the belt she wore that cleaned her within moments, no matter what she did inside of it. The grip on Shepard’s hair tightened until the kneeling woman had to squeeze her eyes shut in pain. But she remained on the floor, soaked in both the shower and Samantha, dutifully licking and swallowing everything given to her.   
  
The haze continued from there. The shower came to an end, towels were grabbed without looking so they could go back to shameless kissing, and the bedsheets eventually soaked up what was left on them. Both bodies were thoroughly explored with tongues and fingers. Breasts pawed, thighs caressed, hair pulled. More such explosive orgasms were had. And every time, Shepard followed where Sam took her. She straddled the commander. She forced Shepard to put her head down and raise her pretty freckled ass into the air just for Sam's visual pleasure. And more than once, she demanded a repeat of what Shepard did in the shower, though this time in the warm softness of the Commander’s bed. In the end, Sam lay in triumph next to the exhausted redhead, resting on one elbow so she could look down at the other woman who lay in a tangle of limbs and satisfaction.   
  
Tomorrow, they’d probably get back to work on their half-baked plan to fool EDI. Probably. EDI would no doubt start the nanite-based teasing again the moment they woke up, and they'd get back to a little fun before they started working. And Sam had no intention of leaving the comfort of the Commander’s bed after spending the past week so alone in empty quarters. Fortunately, Shepard either had no energy, or no inclination to kick Traynor out. Or maybe they both knew that after a brief rest, they’d be back at it as if they hadn’t just thoroughly used the space to sate an unquenchable lust brought on by AI manipulation.


	16. Chapter 16

Ashley had to pee.

It always hit at this time of night, years before she found herself trapped in this hell. Almost on the dot at 23:30 hours, her bladder told her that it was time to answer the call. It had never been much of a problem, though. She could recall dozens of times in her life when she just ignored her body’s signals and kept on working. Or patrolling. Or studying. Or whatever important thing had occupied her. There was always time later to relive the minor discomfort. It was just a quirk about her body she had come to accept.

But now, that quirk had come around to become another layer of humiliation on top of Ashley’s already horrible existence. For decades, the siren call of her bladder meant very little. Just a function she handled without thinking, and then forgot about immediately after. Now, she had no choice but to put her entire mind to it.

Ash had learned over the past week that Liara did not sleep much, or for long. And just like Ashley’s bladder worked like a machine, so did the Asari keep to a strict schedule. By 22:00 sharp, she left her quarters to clean herself and eat. She then returned, shut her data feeds and VI assistant down, and went to sleep as soon as her head touched the bedding. But when she did, she retreated into a state of unconsciousness so deep, she might have registered as dead to medical scanners. She laid still as a statue in her bed, resting on her side with her arms and legs curled ever so slightly. It might have been adorable if Ash hadn’t spent a considerable part of the daytime with her face buried between the alien’s ass cheeks. By 06:00, it would start again.

She only knew about that pose, however, from the bare specks of starlight that filtered through the windows. All other lights in Liara’s quarters had been shut off, even those on her terminal and the wall of monitors. Apparently, for Liara to get comfortable enough to sleep, it required her to be enveloped by so much darkness that it became near impossible to see. Even Ashley’s military-rated perfect vision had trouble making out any details in her surroundings. Probably a good thing, given the only objects in the room worth seeing were also the most terrible: the console Ash knelt in front of just so she could act as a stool for Liara. The bowls that held her food and water. And of course… the litter box.

For the first two days of Ashley’s confinement, she had not used the goddamn box. Even when her body screamed for it, she refused to lower herself to that indignity. And hell, she allowed her dark thoughts to swim with ideas like succumbing to an infection, or having something rupture in her bowels that would kill her. But unfortunately, on the third day of her new life as a piece of furniture, her bladder had other ideas. Ash couldn’t stop it, and she let out a defeated sigh as her body worked on instinct while she knelt behind Liara, tongue extended into the alien's ass.

“Goddess, Ashley!” Liara spat as she noticed the liquid on the floor. “EDI gave you the means to handle such things!” The words were punctuated by the Asari grabbing for the leather riding crop and giving the human a few lashes on her spread thighs.

On that day, Ashley learned something that made her life a fraction of a fraction better. As she had been ordered to remain in this small room until EDI said otherwise, and had no clothes or tools of her own anymore, she could not clean the mess she made. That responsibility fell to her “owner”, and Liara grudgingly left the room to grab some sanitary equipment, which left Ash alone in the room with nothing but the puddle and lingering flavor of the Asari on her tongue. Likewise, Liara had to take care of the litterbox every time it was used from then on. The 22nd century had yet to figure out a sanitary powder that made stuff magically disappear.  

So while Liara acted as Ashley’s tormentor and prime guardian of the horrific new life she now lived, the Asari was also responsible for sifting through Ash’s waste and disposing of it. It had to have been a deliberate move on EDI’s part, just a small reminder of where the Shadow Broker really stood in their arrangement. And so while Ashley still loathed the litterbox and what it reduced her to, she could find a modicum of comfort in what happened after she used it.

And so Ashley rose from her dog bed, then put her palm flat against the cold metal of the deckplate. She did not feel the telltale buzz of Liara’s biotics holding her collar down, but she dared not risk standing up. EDI had eyes everywhere, and the damn robot worked 24/7. If she breached the first thing she had been told, Ashley knew the consequences would be most unpleasant. Even more so than her daily routine had already become. The threat EDI had made against her family had been too strong, and filled Ash with enough rage to keep her shuddering and breathing hot for hours every time she thought about it. Even if this glitch were fixed and EDI returned to her normal self, Ashley knew she could never call the AI friend again. Hell, she'd probably still try to destroy the mobile platform even if the mind inside of it had been returned to normal. She had a dark history with that thing, after all. Her first encounter with it had been when Eva Core, the Cerberus AI it had been designed for, almost crushed Ashley's skull against a shuttle. 

No, she had to ignore that and stay strong. Eventually, this would change, and she’d get out of this. Pain was temporary, her old PT instructor said. And so this degradation would not last. Either Liara would make good on her vague promise of getting them out of this, or someone else would come to their rescue and bring EDI down. To save her sisters and anyone else also trapped on the Normandy, she just had to play nice and let it happen. Hell, maybe at such a low rung on the ladder, people might overlook her and let some critical information slip. And then the second human spectre would make everyone involved with this pay dearly.

Her legs had grown accustomed to the tail jutting between them, and Ash smoothly put herself into a crawling position without crunching her knees against it, or almost pulling it out when she let it slide beneath her. The tail took its natural position as Ashley crawled forward, held out just like an animal’s and swaying just enough to remind her that it was not part of her body. Just an attachment of a plug still buried deep in her ass.

It didn’t take very long for her to crawl the distance necessary to get to the corner of the room where her appointed receptacle sat. But although Ash felt the urge to make use of it, she did not. Instead, the collared human turned away from the litterbox. She crawled further until she knelt in front of the locked door that sealed her away from the rest of the ship. This, too, had become part of her routine. Every night, she took advantage of the darkness mixed with Liara’s deep slumber, and put herself to work. It was an island of activity and frantic motions in an ocean of alien cruelty and AI madness. She had once failed to breach the layers of electronic locks that kept the door closed to her. But Ash had years of training, and the experience of one of the most powerful clandestine groups in the galaxy behind her. She knew she couldn’t be thwarted forever. No matter how long it took, Ashley would breach the security of the door and free herself.  

She no longer cared about her constant nudity or how other people on the ship might react upon seeing her. Hell, the collar hardly registered in her thoughts at all. She just imagined herself free of the room, able to once again walk about the ship she called home. And also free to get a gun and pump EDI’s core full of weapon fire. It might even be satisfying to do it in the buff with the collar still locked on her neck, just as one final insult to the AI that thought this was okay.

With the pressure on her bladder growing more insistent, Ash redoubled her efforts. She detached the panel that concealed the circuitry behind the armor, then her adept fingers got to work. She tapped commands, she rerouted pathways, and she connected panels that had been removed. And then she tapped her finger against the red holographic display on the door that showed its locked state.

Nothing.

As usual.

It seemed EDI had once again out-thought the trained Alliance and Citadel operative. Any time Ash tried to brute-force the lock, it fought back with equal fervor often with a weak shock to her fingertips. If she tried to subtly reroute connections or fool the locking program, she found it had been an electronic trap and it rewrote itself before her eyes. Tonight’s attempt, a grand mix of both techniques, met with similar failure. Oh well. She would try again tomorrow night. Ash knew she would spend the entire sleep cycle at the door if she allowed herself to keep trying. And the longer she knelt there, the greater chance EDI would question her motives. Which in turn would mean another round with the riding crop. Something she had no intention of repeating.

Lips curled down and tail held out with bristled fur, Ashley set the panel back in place and once again put herself in a crawling position. She made her way to the litterbox with a few soft pats from her bare palms. For a time, she sat in front of it, taking in the view of the large blue box in the dim starlight. It was as immaculate as it had been on the first day EDI brought it in, thanks to Liara’s constant effort to keep it clean. Beside it, the empty food bowl and half-filled water bowl sat in the stillness. Ashley sighed and told herself that this would not last forever.

It did not take long to figure out how best to use the box. Not unlike some facilities on various colonies or Asari bathrooms, she just had to squat over it and let nature do its course. Nothing fancy and, thank god, she did not have to do anything more humiliating than simply doing her business in the open. Of course, she had also learned to take the tail in one hand before finishing the maneuver, just in case the dumb thing ended up in the litter.

As Ash bent her knees and put herself in a half-standing squat over the box, she felt the plug inside of her shift as she reached for the tail. And as relief flowed out of her, she briefly realized that in this entire week, she had not had to do anything other than this. Not once had she felt the other compulsion, other than the constant fullness the plug left in her colon. It had to have been the food she ate. Given most of its bulk was actually the water poured into the bowl, no wonder most of it ended up in her bladder. And maybe the powder itself had been formulated to exit the same way. No matter the reason, Ash felt grateful for that fact. She shuddered to think what EDI or Liara would force her to do with the tail if she had to evacuate the other way. 

Another thing Ash had learned was to wait and hover above the box for a little longer than she would have in any other situation. The first night she made use of the box, which took almost an hour as her dwindling pride refused to let her degrade herself like this, she crawled back to her bed and left a small trail of droplets fall behind her. While it had been satisfying to see Liara grumble as she cleaned it, Ash also realized she had slept right next to her own piss all night. And while she had come to tolerate many aspects of her situation, that felt like one straw too many.

Once satisfied she had handled her bladder to a sufficient degree, Ashley leaned forward until her hands once again touched the deck and crawled off the box. She made a turn back to her bed, satisfied in the knowledge that tomorrow, Liara would have to handle the contents.

Every single time, Ash felt shock when she lay down in her too-small dog bed at the foot of Liara’s humanoid-sized bed. The cloth and padding felt a little too good, too warm. Maybe too comfortable for something not meant for humans. As she curled herself into the only possible position the bed would allow, unconsciousness took her.

“Wake up.” Liara said a heartbeat later.

Ashley’s eyes fluttered open. No, that couldn’t be right. Liara still had several hours of sleep left. The schedule…

As the world came into focus, Ashley realized that time had indeed passed. The stars outside shone in a different pattern, and the glowing arm of a gas cloud, illuminated deep reds and yellows by a nearby star, added a deep ambience. Likewise, all of the Shadow Broker’s equipment had returned to life, and the incomprehensible amounts of data she could process without skipping a beat scrolled merrily over each monitor. That damn dog bed, it had knocked her out so hard Ash didn’t even get to remember falling asleep, not to mention whatever dreams she managed to have last night. At least when she dreamt, she wasn't here in this room.

The Asari stood in front of the dog bed, her bare legs mere centimeters from Ashley’s head. Liara had stopped wearing her usual clothing days ago, and seemed comfortable wearing something straight out of a fetish vid. Tiny dark undergarments that stretched comically over her feminine frame. Especially the top, which seemed to strain in a mighty effort to contain her large blue breasts. Oh, and a cloth choker that looked oddly similar to the collar around Ashley’s neck. Ash doubted Liara had chosen this radical change of wardrobe herself, given that she regularly left the room in the attire. Most likely another thing EDI forced upon her, or she risked losing her network. Did anyone else on the ship have to wear this, or was Liara special? 

When Ashley didn’t give an immediate response to the order, Liara lifted a delicate alien foot and tapped it against the human’s shoulder. “Ashley, wake up.”

“Yes, mistress.” Ash mumbled as she raised her head and wriggled a few tense muscles.

And without any further prompt, she pushed herself onto all fours just so she could lean down and rub her extended tongue over Liara’s left foot. This was not EDI’s doing, but an invention of the Asari herself. Something she had never done in her life before, but seemed like an intriguing new activity. And perhaps something EDI would enjoy recording for her mysterious purposes. Ash had no say in the matter, of course. She knew this because the first time she refused, the riding crop was again used to bring her into that strange space of pain and ecstasy. Liara’s hand at the whip was not as precise as EDI’s, but it still proved effective, and Ashley soon began to obey without question.

Fortunately, the Asari’s obsession with self-cleanliness meant there was nothing unseemly for Ash to taste or her tongue to catch. Just the strange sensation of the alien anatomy, and the abject humiliation that rushed through her entire body every time she bent down to worship the blue digits.

At least when Ashley did this, she could close her eyes and pretend that the appendage sliding between her lips was not an alien toe, but a man’s cock. An old boyfriend who used to taste sweeter than she thought a man could taste. Or hell, even James. Though his size was far larger than Liara’s delicate digit. She busied herself with any pleasant imagery she could think of as she debased herself and lavished the toe with her full set of oral skills. Soon, Ash felt Liara push the foot higher, a signal to take it to the next level. It took effort, and it stretched her jaw to an uncomfortable degree, but she allowed the Asari to push all five of her toes deep into Ashley’s mouth. It pushed her tongue flat against her bottom teeth and she sputtered, but she did not fight it. They stayed in that position for several moments, the human suckling and sliding her tongue between each individual extremity as fast as her muscles would allow.

“That is a very good look for you, Ashley. Your lips have always been a very attractive feature, especially when put to such use.” Liara said with that damned satisfied, cruel smirk. She had extended an arm to the nearby bulkhead to steady herself just so she could remain on balance. “Glyph, remind me tomorrow morning to record the next session. I’d like to review it after the fact.”

“Of course, Doctor T’soni.” Liara’s VI, Glyph, responded with its cheery artificial voice.

Liara pulled her foot back, which exited Ashley’s mouth with a soft noise. A streamer of saliva kept her lips connected to the appendage for several seconds until Liara turned around. “Very good, Ashley. Now, finish the water in your bowl while I go prepare our morning meals.”

“Yes, mistress.”

Liara, clad in just her dark undergarments, exited the room. Striding through the door that might as well have been solid stone to Ashley.

Alone, but still under the watchful eye of an insane AI and Liara’s hovering VI drone, Ashley groaned and once again crawled across the room. This time, she approached the bowl full of water. Liara followed EDI’s instructions to the letter, and kept it nearly full at all hours. Even when it was inconvenient for the Shadow Broker, Liara would exit the room just to get a bottle of water to refill the bowl. And as a strange yet humiliating consequence, Ash had never been so well hydrated in her life.

Like when she ate her gooey food substitute, Ash lowered herself until she hovered face-first over the bowl, and then lowered her mouth beneath the surface, gulping up the room temperature liquid as fast as she could. It helped wash the lingering taste of Asari foot from her tongue. And prepared her for what would be coming in just a few minutes. 

Liara showered in the morning, just a quick cleanse to get herself ready for the day. And then she made herself something to eat before grabbing a new portion of powder and two bottles of water. She had never been much for small talk with the crew, and this known behavior ensured that Liara was rarely interrupted or questioned about her new habits.

Of course, the Asari queen of efficiency, information, and social ineptitude did not keep her pet human waiting for long. Just as Ashley finished drinking from her bowl, she looked up to see the door flash open and closed just long enough to allow Liara back inside. As always, she held Ashley’s daily nutrition and the replacement water in her hands.

“I believe today we’ll start with the reports from Agents T’ven and Ikesr, Glyph.” Liara spoke to her VI as she got to work absent-mindedly filling the two bowls while Ash waited patiently on the deck.

“Of course, Shadow Broker.” The assistant responded.

“Oh, and key up the readings from that Salarian scouting report. I want to keep on top of any new element zero deposits.”

“As you wish.”

Liara used her finger to stir the powder into the tasteless gruel Ash had been forced to eat for the past week, and then cleaned it off by wiping it on the rim.

Then she stopped. And waited. “Here you go, Ashley. You must keep your nutrition up.”

“Thank you, mistress.” Ash replied with her dullest, most defeated voice before crawling forward and lowering her face toward the tasteless white fluid. As with many things she had learned over the past week, she found that if she arched her back along with keeping her palms resting flat against the floor, she could remain in this position for a longer period of time. Which meant she didn’t have to spend quite as much time slurping her meals down, and could get on with the rest of her day. Of course, this motion exposed her pussy and ass like no other position in the world, but she had no one but Liara to expose herself to.

The moment she lapped up the first tongue-full of the goop, she felt something tugging her backward. Not hard enough to pull her away from the bowl, but an insistent pressure… in her bowels. A familiar tug. She spared a glance behind, and saw that Liara was still standing at Ashley’s side, the riding crop in her blue hand. And she was brushing it against the tail that now stood near upright as it jutted out of Ash’s anus.

“This has been such a fascinating device to watch in action.” Liara said to herself in a tone that sounded almost scholarly. All the while, she kept stroking the crop up and down its length. Ash didn’t feel it, of course, just the way the tail pulled against her sphincter and rattled the plug. “It communicates so much, and you don’t need to do anything to direct it. I once studied nonverbal communication, you know. As part of my training in Prothean archaeology, I was required to learn and interpret multiple different galactic languages and methods of conveying information. It has always been a fascination of mine to see how each species has learned to communicate with more than their words.”

Ashley kept eating, and she felt the crop cease pulling on the tail. It disappeared for a moment, until she felt the familiar cool softness of the leather end brush against her folds.

Liara continued. “Humans are some of the most expressive species in the galaxy. You’re almost like Turians, who can change the intonation of a phrase a hundred ways just by flexing their mandibles in differing directions. The way you carry yourselves, or how the minute hairs on your bodies bristle like fur when you’re agitated. I believe your species evolved from one that was quite hirsute, was it not? The tail works almost too well with you.”

Ashley rolled her eyes. Stupid alien observations. That’s when she wracked herself with involuntary gasps as the crop went down past her dry, uninterested pussy lips, to rub circles around her clit. EDI had been a mechanical master of drawing out Ashley’s pleasure with the damned whip. It took Liara some practice to get it right, but she had always been a fast learner. And now Ash’s cheeks flushed red hot as she tried to concentrate on her breakfast.

“Speaking of fur, I can see yours starting to grow again. All over your genitals. Few citadel species have a similar natural covering.” Ever since her late teens, Ash had always kept herself bald down there. Mostly out of a sake of hygiene, ease of maintenance, and personal preference. But also it meant she didn’t have to worry about the skin-tight undersuits all Alliance soldiers wore beneath their armor. The damn things were notorious for catching and tugging on body hair. Even the guys in the service kept themselves clean all over. Chest hair was apparently even more painful than pubes when the undersuits got ahold of it. “I think I’d like to see it grow some more.” Liara said. “Asari genitals are superficially like yours, but are totally hairless. The visual contrast is curious.”

The circles around her clit continued, and the pressure increased. Which made Ash moan into her semen-like meal.

Liara spoke with a breathy, awed tone. “I just have to apply the smallest pressure, and your body says more than I’ve ever heard you speak in all the years we’ve known one another.”

Ashley’s eyes narrowed and her brow furrowed, but she did not respond. She dared not, because she knew the next sound she made would be another animalistic whine for more attention on her exposed, aching anatomy. With her on all fours, legs spread, mind aflame, Ashley imagined a dozen different lovers taking her in this exact position. Hell, right now she might accept the odd Turian, Vorcha, or Volus if they had the right equipment and were willing to use it. Anything to end this building heat.

“EDI said you were never to be punished while eating. But she said nothing about constant stimulation. I wonder if perhaps I can use this riding crop to invoke more responses from you. Perhaps if I keep doing this every day, and I read your communication right, you might one day associate eating with orgasms.”

Ashley huffed into the last dregs of her food, which sent some of it splattering against her cheeks. That day when EDI kept alternating between whipping her thigh and rubbing her pussy in such a perfect, mechanical way, until her brain could no longer tell the difference between the agony of the strikes and the ecstasy of the rubbing still confused and angered her. And Liara had exploited that idea more than once over the past week. To think it was going to happen again…

“Mmmmooohhhhh!” Ash could not help herself and lifted her head out of the bowl to let out a howl of satisfaction as Liara doubled up on her ministrations, zeroed in on exactly where the human wanted, no _needed_ , the touch most of all. In an instant, all of Ashley’s woes, her anger, even her fears, drifted away as her body curled in a brief but wonderful climax.

“Yes… I do believe we still have a lot to learn, Ashley. A great deal. But at a later time. For now, I must check my network.”

With practiced, fluid motions, Liara turned away from Ashley and set the crop down on her console. But she did not turn away for long. Nor did she do it empty handed. Ashley likewise did her own practiced motions, and sat up from the empty bowl, cheeks still covered in white fluid. She put herself on her knees and balled her hands on top of her thighs.

“EDI says this gag will fit you better. And I tend to agree.”

In Liara’s hand was another object made of black leather, but this one much softer and of vastly different construction. A smooth metal ring sat in the center, fit just wide enough to slip into Ashley’s obedient mouth and hold her jaw open in a way that almost strained her muscles. Yet didn’t. The leather straps on either side of the ring tugged at the corners of her lips until Liara finished securing it behind her head, locking the ring gag in place.

“There.” Liara said when finished. She moved back to standing in front of Ashley, her nearly nude body, save for the dark underwear, shining in the light. “What do we say?”

Ashley was meant to vocalize “Thank you mistress.” But the gag, of course, prevented her from speaking any coherent words. Instead, Ash just grunted a vague “Hhhhang oooou mihress” from behind her strained open mouth. A streamer of drool followed the words, the first drops of a flood that would cover her chin for the rest of the day. 

“Very good. Now get into position. And Glyph, open up the feeds. I want my messages displayed in chronological descending order.”

“Of course, Shadow Broker.”

Liara turned her back to Ashley and bent down just enough to pull her ridiculously small panties down her legs, so she could stand bare in front of the human.

The gag had been added on day four, when Liara grew tired of Ashley’s repeated attempts to purse her lips and hold back the sensations and taste of the Asari’s backside. Not that Ash didn’t try to comply, lest she draw Liara or EDI’s anger. But sometimes her body just naturally tried to reject what was being forced upon her. And in those brief moments of resistance, she could be herself again. No longer.

Now Ashley’s tongue rested against alien sphincter for hours uninterrupted. The gag ensured that even when she tried to retreat her tongue to the back of her mouth, it still tickled the tip against Liara. And more often than not, Ash felt herself forced to drive her tongue forward just to relieve the odd stiffness the gag forced onto her jaw muscles. That action resulted in her plunging it deeper into the muscular hole before her. And of course, it gave Liara several thunderous, roaring climaxes.

Today, she did the day before. As soon as Liara turned her big blue ass to Ashley, the human crawled forward until her face rested against the scaled cheeks. And then she pushed herself, eyes shut and nose wrinkled, forward until her open mouth contacted the puckered opening. And fortunately, as in all the times she had done this before, nothing but the pure taste of Liara’s skin, salt, and the lingering remnants of soap hit her tongue. That morning shower Liara took was for more than just her benefit.

But it didn’t remain like that. The day would drag on, Ash knew. Liara would keep trying to read her reports and dictate the galaxy as only the Shadow Broker could, all the while having her ass eaten by an unwilling subject. She’d be interrupted several times every hour to grip her console and scream out in explosive release. Eventually, she would call for a break and Ashley would be excused to drink water or eat the midday meal. Liara would clean herself and likewise grab lunch. Sometimes, Liara would exit the room and come back with a sanitary towel to wipe Ashley from head to toe, in lieu of a bath of her own.

Then she would return again to a face full of azure ass cheeks and the sensation of her mouth against an alien sphincter. It was on the same day that Ash was first bound with the ring gag did she realize that by midday, when her sore muscles forced her tongue forward and into the ring, a subtle change would occur. And it was different every day. A very subtle alteration of the way Liara’s most hidden skin tasted. Most likely because unlike Ashley, Liara had a varied diet. 

The moment she realized what that meant, what her buried tongue had brushed against, she wept behind mountains of Asari ass.


	17. Chapter 17

“Is it always going to do that?” Samantha asked as she glanced toward Vega. More specifically, toward his crotch.   
  
“Look, I’m one of the only guys on a ship full of beautiful mostly-naked women. Sometimes he’s got a mind of his own. Besides, I wasn’t gonna say nothin’ if you weren’t.” And with that, James turned away from her in an effort to hide his semi-erect penis. They both also knew that not all of his reactions were his own. He had the nanomachines in his system, just like her and Shepard. Still, it was fun to tease him after all the teasing that Vega had done over the years.    
  
“Good. Because I’ve got nothing to say.”   
  
“Let’s just get this over with.” Vega sighed.  
  
The two of them stood in the cargo bay, next to the impromptu gym that James practically lived in. It had taken quite some time, and multiple hours spent with Shepard between her legs, to research all of the gaps in the Normandy’s interior security system. And to her great shock, as well as Shepard’s when she managed to pull her head out from Sam’s thighs, was the fact that the cargo bay had the grandmother of all visual blind spots! Perhaps an oversight from Cerberus. Or maybe a mistake that the Alliance refit team overlooked. But there was only one security camera for the entirety of the deck. Granted, it pointed at the most critical areas of the large space, and could see any and all activity that happened in 90% of the bay.   
  
But here? At the gym? (Well actually a few meters behind it) She might as well have not been aboard the Normady at all when it came to the security feeds. Vega informed her that EDI could most definitely see him when he exercised, as he was subject to several uncomfortable conversations with her almost daily. But every now and then, like when he walked behind his equipment for some good old fashioned pushups or just to rest on the deck, she didn’t speak. At all. When Sam checked her terminal, she could confirm that a support beam covered just enough of the area to block it from visual spectrum sight.   
  
If they could prove that EDI couldn’t see such a large section of the ship, it would make all of their plans infinitely easier. No more would they have to hide their secret communication behind their own bodies. Nor would they have to awkwardly stand in obvious locations that the ship’s uber-intelligent mistress would eventually figure out.   
  
Sam held the small notebook in her hand, the one Shepard had given her. The words **FUCK ~~EDI~~ ME** were still on full display on the first open page, and she relished showing that page to James. Again, because it was fun to see his expression. All his blustery talk about getting Shepard into bed ever since the war kicked off, and little Sam Traynor had beaten him to the punch. (Well, so did Joker, but that was EDI’s business)  
  
She retrieved a pen she had stashed in the left cup of her humiliating bikini top and wrote more words in the first open space she could find on that page. **CAN YOU SEE THIS?**  
  
James turned to face her, though he seemed loathe to point his manhood in her direction, and then silently nodded. The same rules applied here as they did everywhere else. They might have been out of visual contact with the security system, but the audio sensors were still in full working order.   
  
Sam wrote some more. **WE NEED TO TEST. STAY HERE NEXT TO ME**  
  
She had to flip the page over. **IF EDI CAN SEE THIS, SHE’LL SAY SOMETHING**  
  
While Sam didn’t hold the paper over her head or anything glaringly obvious, she did hold it in her hand at such an angle that anyone standing in the cargo bay would have seen it. And if anyone had a telescopic lens for a visual sensor, they would have easily been able to zoom in and comprehend the words.   
  
They stood in silence for several minutes, broken only by the occasional clearing of their throats or mumbled apologies for standing so close to one another. Sam also noticed that his vision glanced down at her on multiple occasions. Hers did as well, but mostly just to ensure that his engorged lower extremity didn’t poke into her thigh or stomach. That would have been way too embarrassing for either of them to live down.   
  
She brought the paper back up. **I’LL TELL SHEPARD THIS WORKS**  
  
Sam pointed to the words to make sure James saw them. And then wrote below that: **YOU FIND TALI. BRING HER HERE TOMORROW**  
  
That was the next phase of their plan. Tali had been keeping mostly to herself ever since EDI’s takeover. She and Garrus, actually. Fifty-fifty shot that the two of them were having nonstop sex now that her suit was out of the picture, or she was simply limiting her suit-free contact with the rest of the crew. Probably both.  
  
The two humans stood together in silence for a few moments more, just to make triple sure that EDI could not see what they were up to. Finally, when Sam could take no more of the uncomfortable silence, she spoke up. “Well then, I guess that’s it.”  
  
“Yeah. Uh… yes. Thank you for the… demonstration, Traynor.” Vega’s attempts at being a smooth-talking insurrectionist needed way more work.   
  
“I’ll be back in twenty four hours.” Sam nodded and turned away. She also made damn sure to close the notebook before she exited the blind spot. The pen went back into her half-bra and she exited the cargo bay. As she walked away from the man, she could practically feel the sizzle of his gaze as he watched her nearly-naked ass bounce with every step she took.   
  
The moment she stood alone in the lift, Sam exhaled a long sigh. Unfortunately for Vega, being male meant the nanoscopic machines in his nerves made it impossible to hide what his body was going through. Sam could at least keep her legs stuck together in a death grip to prevent him from seeing what EDI had done to her.   
  
Sam rode up to Shepard’s cabin, intent on having the commander relieve this pressure the moment she could lie down.   
  
***  
  
The moment Samantha exited the cargo bay, James let out a long, powerful, animalistic grunt. Fucking EDI! Even if she didn’t know exactly what he and Traynor were up to, she definitely knew that the two of them were standing together, alone in a very large room. And while he was fully aware of the other woman’s preferences and had zero intent of violating them, he doubted the machine felt the same way. Everyone aboard this slave ship already knew that Shepard fucked Joker on the regular with the doors to the cockpit wide open for anyone to see. Which was a total violation of Shepard’s famously strict privacy policy. What other barriers was EDI intent on shattering between her playthings?  
  
Not that Vega didn’t find Sam attractive. Hell, she’d been the subject of more than a few of his fantasies over the past couple years. But he also knew that’s where those impulses would stay: in his head. She would never feel the same way about him, so he would never push her buttons the same way he had pushed Shepard, Ashley, Liara, and even Jack that one time. Traynor was strictly off his flirt list, even though the animal part of his brain still acknowledged that she was hot as hell. Especially when she walked around in that tiny little number EDI forced all the girls to wear.   
  
And those tiny robots that EDI had forced into him? Fuck. He had no idea how much of this was his own lizard brain seeing hot women all the time, and how much was pure manipulation from a broken computer.   
  
Either way, if Vega was going to do anything useful today, he first had to take care of this raging erection. He slumped down where he stood, heedless of anything other than his burning need, and ripped the flimsy shorts off his body. As in, he actually ripped them off. The sheer fabric gave only a token resistance to his strength as he rushed to handle the inferno raging inside of him. The former garment fluttered to the deck by his feet.  
  
Now nude and alone in the cargo bay, Vega immediately stroked himself. Images of Traynor, Shepard, even Tali washed over his mind.   
  
Like just recently, when Tali found him in the galley and she… Wait. Concentrate. Traynor said he had a mission to accomplish related to Tali. She needed to be brought here so she could… an intrusive memory of the Quarian’s slender hand wrapped around his cock broke any coherent thought in Vega’s mind. He had to shove it away.   
  
Or what about right after, when she said the next time they met, she’d have one of those reversal pills for him?  
  
Oh lord…  
  
“Oh, James. I didn’t expect you’d be waiting for me.” A distinctive Quarian accented voice echoed through the room.   
  
Vega’s eyes moved back to the lift. And almost like a vision sent by God himself, standing there, her eyes wide with a mixture of surprise and lust, was Tali.   
  
“Oh… shit. I was just… you know.” His mind raced as his heartbeat pounded like a rampaging varren in a cage. This seemed too good. Too convenient. He had a mission to complete! But wait, Tali was the mission! Shit, he’d never had such an easy assignment before. He just needed to say… something. She was needed. Holy hell was it difficult to control his words right now. He just wanted to gasp and moan and ride this wave of artificial and natural arousal to its end.   
  
“Yes, I can see what you were doing.” Tali plodded forward. As always, she remained topless and nearly naked except for the part of her suit that looked like a pair or regular panties. He had yet to see her out of them.   
  
“Care for some help?” She purred. The Quarian took the final few steps toward James and then crouched down beside him, intently watching his hand jackhammer up and down his cock.   
  
Tali reached into her suit bottom and then came back up with a small white pill. It must have been one of those Reversal things. The pills that let people eat opposite-protein food without getting crazy sick. But James didn’t have any food… oh. “I told you I’d have one of these ready for you.” She winked at him.   
  
Vega felt beyond words. His throat had gone tight and dry at the same time. Whatever he needed to say to Tali, it could wait until he finished.  
  
She swallowed the pill with no fanfare and then grinned at James. Not a moment later, her head surged downward, enveloping his cockhead with a strange yet very pleasant sensation of heat and warmth. A Quarian’s mouth felt… different from a human’s or Asari. A little colder, maybe. And the way her tongue worked felt strange. Not bad, just not what he expected. A little like the handjob she had given him.   
  
Tali kept her mouth at just the tip of his cock for several moments. If James were a younger man, he might have cum right then and there. But instead he surrendered to the sweet tease of Tali’s tongue rolling in gentle circles around the tip.   
  
One of his hands came up to rest on the back of Tali’s head as she bobbed on him. His gentle insistence pushed her slowly down the shaft, taking more and more of him down her throat.   
  
***  
  
Traynor threw the tiny clothes off her body long before the lift reached the top deck. In that moment, she cared nothing for anyone else seeing her, talking to her, or anything. They had to come off. Likewise, the notebook fell into the pile of absurdly small clothing, forgotten. Her fingers found her needy clit a half second later, and she rubbed in frantic circles as she felt the electric tingle of her arousal mix with what was obviously the endless micro-stimulation that EDI forced on her every day. That had to have been what this was. No other explanation.   
  
With one hand occupied on her genitals, Sam’s other hand raised to grab one of her exposed breasts. She pawed at it like a teenager with her first girlfriend, just stimulating her nerves in the rawest and least artful way possible. Memories of the previous few days flooded her mind. Seeing Shepard nude for the first time in her cabin. Or all the things she had the commander do for her ever since. God, that first time in the shower, fulfilling endless fantasies she had imagined.   
  
The lift filled with the echoed noises of Sam’s needy whimpers, as well as the wet noises of her dripping cunt as her fingers rubbed with increasing desperation. She didn’t even stop when the lift opened to show the top deck of the Normandy. She just walked forward, still groping herself like a madwoman as she made her way into the commander’s cabin.   
  
“Shepard?” Sam moaned as soon as the door slid open without a hint of pause. No clothes meant she had no moment of barred access. “Shepard are you in here?”  
  
_“Commander Shepard is currently indisposed.”_ EDI’s voice warbled over the comm.  
  
“Just get her up here…. Please, EDI.” Samantha managed to say between huffed breaths. She knew exactly what the AI was talking about. Shepard wasn’t waiting for her because she was tending to someone else’s cock or pussy or whatever.   
  
_“I will endeavor to have her in your proximity as soon as she is able.”_  
  
The desperate woman moved to Shepard’s large comfortable bed and landed face-first onto it. Still with her hands caressing her own body, she pushed herself into a position where her knees curled under her and her ass raised into the air. She buried her mouth into Shepard’s well-used sheets to let out a long, loud moan as her fingers brought her to a sudden and powerful orgasm. The kind that forced her thighs to clamp tight against the hand savaging her clit and her core muscles to curl into a ball.    
  
Well that certainly wasn’t her. Sam knew her body well enough to know how she felt as her climaxes rose and fell. She couldn’t recall if EDI had ever forced her to cum before, just raised her arousal to astronomical levels on a daily basis. But she knew it could happen from talking to Shepard. Apparently EDI had done it several times to the commander, both as encouragement and punishment.   
  
It was that exact thought, visualizing Shepard simply stopping in the middle of her tracks and falling over with a machine-dictated orgasm, that wound Samantha’s body to its own natural climax. Following on the heels of the original, she closed her eyes and rode the waves as her body did its own thing. Her skin flushed with sensation, and she suddenly felt every tiny gust of wind as it caressed her naked body. Even the satiny soft blankets of Shepard’s bed felt a thousand times better than they ever had before.   
  
She did not know how long she remained like that, probably no more than twenty seconds, but it was a blissful eternity. When spent, she finally allowed herself to sprawl out on the bed fully, laying spread eagle on the bed, still face down, breathing as heavily as if she just ran a half-kilometer race. A few aftershocks still hit the woman now and then, but they were nothing compared to the real thing.   
  
She knew it wouldn’t last long. Both EDI’s manipulation and her own carnal thoughts would return in time. Just getting up and putting on those ridiculous “clothes” again would be enough to kickstart her overdriven libido. Especially since she knew that she’d just have to take them off again to be in Shepard’s cabin later tonight.   
  
Wait…  
  
Oh shit.  
  
_Oh fucking shit._  
  
Traynor bolted up out of the bed the moment she realized her mistake. Not only had she dropped her tiny “uniform” in the lift, but she left the notebook in there!   
  
Unfortunately, the moment Sam stood on rubbery cum-drunk legs, intent on making a bolt for the cabin’s door, EDI’s silver metallic platform walked in. The notebook sat firm in her hand.   
  
“Samantha.” The AI said, using her first name with an air of disappointed contempt. “We must discuss some things.”  
  
***  
  
Vega had basically cum down Tali’s throat the moment she swallowed him. The combo of EDI’s fucking robots and his own pent-up arousal ensured it happened. Fortunately, the Quarian didn’t seem to mind. In fact, she made the most amazing sounds as his seed followed the pill she had literally just swallowed. And when she popped up from his crotch, she could not have looped happier.   
  
“Keelah, that was a lot.” She said as one of her three-fingered hands went down to caress his softening member.  
  
“Oh, uh, sorry.” James’ face flushed with heat as he tried to concentrate on the sudden and explosive relief. But with her hand and who knows what else going on with his nerves, he knew that he’d probably be right back to his unnatural arousal within moments.   
  
“No, don’t apologize. If you want, just call me any time you need some relief. I could definitely get used to doing that.”   
  
“That’s… really… generous.” Vega breathed as Tali’s gentle caressing of his manhood became a full-on jacking off. Her grip had improved since she last did this for him, or was it that his senses had become way more intense?   
  
“I just wish EDI would let me take this damned thing off.” She said as she nodded downward, toward her crotch. “I’d love to know what you’re really like.”  
  
Wait… EDI! He had to tell Tali something about EDI! But what was it? Her hand felt so good. And the idea that she’d come and visit him every day for another blowjob… that’s it! He had to convince her to be here tomorrow. That’s when they’d start planning their moves against EDI!  
  
“Well… tomorrow?” Vega managed to ask as Tali increased the tempo of her handjob. “Can you… ah… be here tomorrow?”  
  
“You mean so you can try to get me involved in your little conspiracy to bring EDI down and stop everything she’s doing?” The Quarian asked without even looking up from Vega’s crotch.   
  
If his heart wasn’t already in overdrive from what Tali was doing, it might have come to a sudden halt. His breath caught in his throat and he swore he felt a sheen of perspiration appear all over his body.   
  
Tali continued, still fascinated by his human anatomy. “Why do you think I’m down here, James? I just wanted you all to myself before she stopped you. I’d never hurt EDI. She’s my friend.”  
  
***  
  
Sam somehow brought herself down to a sitting position on Shepard’s bed as the AI’s mobile platform continued to walk forward. She felt like a deer caught in the lights of a runaway skycar, trapped in a small room with a mech that she well knew had been built by Cerberus for combat, infiltration, and assassination.   
  
A combat mech piloted by the AI that had repeatedly drugged her and her friends, assaulted them, kidnapped them into deep space, and then forced them into this strange life of constant sexual activity.   
  
Sam knew she was fucked. In all senses of the word.   
  
“I am not disappointed.” EDI said in her usual calm, cheery tone. “In fact, I am quite pleased with the way you managed to bring such an obvious flaw in my internal security to light. It has been corrected. However, I must also inform you that I have far more than simple visual-spectrum cameras at my disposal. Cerberus installed approximately three thousand, seven hundred and nine infra-red sensors on the Normandy to handle normal heat fluctuations and engine bleed-off patterns. They are also adept at reading the trace heat signatures left by a pen on a sheet of paper.”   
  
If this situation didn’t feel quite so dangerous, Sam might have cried out in frustration and rage. Especially with the way her former AI friend had so casually crushed all of her hopes in a single, cheerful sentence. Instead, she remained silent, a good girl on the bed. Lest she draw the ire of the murder machine in front of her.   
  
EDI kept talking. “I am, however, confused. Especially because you were the one who specifically requested that this scenario between me and the crew should continue.”   
  
Sam wanted to fire back that she hadn’t quite been in control of herself in the cargo bay. When the entire crew united and begged her to stop, but Samantha’s horribly inflamed libido asked to keep going. It was most assuredly the nanomachines forcibly injected into her body, not her own doing! Not at all the fact she had been stripped, placed basically naked in a room full of her friends who were also naked, tied down and… okay. Maybe some of that was her.   
  
“EDI,” Sam began with as gentle a tone as she could muster. “You have to have known that this can’t last forever. You knew from the start that we weren’t okay with this.”  
  
“You said you were.”  
  
“I was… not myself.”  
  
“You cannot lie to me, Samantha.” EDI took one step forward, and it felt like she grew ten times larger. The AI’s physical body loomed over the naked human like a cruel jailer. “My biometric readings of your body show considerable relief of stress. And an increase in regulated body temperature, facial emotional patterns, and even a substantial rise in your number of social interactions with the crew. Your mood, health, and even your anxieties have improved dramatically in a very short amount of time.”  
  
“That was… I haven’t…” Sam tried to say. Anything she came up with died on her tongue. Both because she knew that EDI would shoot it down. But also… EDI was right.   
  
EDI raised the notebook in her silvery hand. “Whether or not your intention to subvert me involved a plan to harm my internal hardware, or somehow incapacitate my processing is irrelevant. You betrayed me, Samantha. You betrayed the trust I put in you to make this a productive and joyful experience for the people I care for.”  
  
EDI paused and dropped the notebook with little fanfare. “I’m afraid I must respond.”  
  
Sam curled backward, anticipating a thousand terrible things at once. What if the mobile platform pounced like a tiger, and mauled her to death right here? Or what if it just snapped her neck and left her body here for Shepard to find? Worse, what if this meant she would hurt everyone else aboard!?  
Instead, the fake female body remained where it stood, looking down at Sam with the same blank, perhaps cheery, expression.   
  
In that silence, she picked up the first whiff of a familiar smelling gas.   
  
“Oh, you bitch…” Samantha Traynor managed to say before she was yet again rendered unconscious.   
  
***  
  
One moment, Jane Shepard had been sitting on the floor of the cockpit, recovering her breath after a marathon session of getting Samantha and Joker off in the same day. Sam was by far the more brutal taskmaster of the two. Joker just needed a quickie or even a good handjob and he was good. Samantha held Jane down for what felt like hours at a time, keeping her face buried between the specialist’s legs for marathon sessions. Not that the commander particularly minded, especially when Sam got that twinge of dominance about her. But it still felt a hell of a lot like a workout after enough time spent licking cunt. Especially when she went right from that environment to the cockpit to get her compulsory time with the pilot done for the day.   
  
The next moment, she awoke in another place entirely. And Jane groaned as she realized she had yet again been drugged by EDI.   
  
She could recognize the Normandy’s galley just by the way it vibrated beneath her. Its location near the ship’s drive core gave it just a hint of uniqueness in that way. Jane also didn’t need to open her eyes to know she was still nude after fucking Joker. Her arms were handcuffed behind her, and she was probably sitting on top of the single large table in the galley’s center.   
  
Yup. She opened her eyes, and that’s what she saw. Fortunately, EDI had not seen it necessary to blindfold the commander. Not only that, but she could see two sets of dark leather shackles wrapped around her ankles, connected by a thin silver chain. Not quite as short as the chain she saw Sam wearing in the cargo bay, but it would still limit her mobility until she could get them off.   
  
She turned to her left, and Jane’s eyes went wide open. On the table at her side, cuffed and restrained like her, was Samantha! But instead of sitting upright on the table, the naked Specialist had been bent forward. Her legs dangled down over the table, and her breasts pushed hard against the table’s flat surface. Sam’s lips were again wrapped around a ball gag. And when Shepard tried to speak, she realized that she, too, now had a rubber ball in her mouth. Kept tight but not painfully so against her head with a leather strap.   
  
There were others here as well. In fact, she saw everyone. James and Joker. Even Garrus and Doctor Michel. All arranged in a semi-circle around the table. All given the same set of restraints. Tali sat beside Joker, though Jane didn’t see any gag or chains on her.   
  
And if the commander shifted further to her left, looking over the unconscious and bent-over Sam, she saw Liara! The Asari’s distinctive blue skin stuck out in contrast with the various shades of human skin on display in front of Shepard. And next to her, Ashley! Like everyone else, the spectre had her arms cuffed, legs chained, and a gag in her mouth. But… was she also wearing a collar? What had happened to her?  
  
It took an embarrassing amount of time for Jane to realize that she and Sam were not the only nude bodies in the galley. With the exception of the chastity belt around Michel’s hips and the suit remnant on Tali, no one had any clothes at all. Not even the tiny mockeries of clothing that Jane had somewhat grown accustomed to seeing everyone wearing. They all, with the exception of James, Sam, and herself, had small strips of silver tape on their bodies. Even Joker had the damned nanomachine delivery device on his body.   
  
This was bad.   
  
Jane tried to wriggle on the table, to adjust the soreness building in her leg muscles, but her awkward restraints made it difficult. She breathed heavily into the gag, which caused a small trickle of drool to ooze past her lips.   
  
“Commander.” EDI said. A moment later, the mobile platform appeared from behind the central pillar of the galley. She had a wistful, strange smile on her artificial face. “Your Cerberus-enhanced metabolism makes it difficult to predict when you will recover from the sedative.”   
  
Jane glared daggers into the mobile platform, given she could do little else. As she did, EDI walked further into the galley, into the center of her gathering of victims. Jane noticed that the metal woman held objects in each of her hands. One contained a small bottle full of clear liquid. The other held something small in a tight fist, so she could not make it out.  
  
A moment later, everyone in the room with the tape on their bodies jerked awake. Through the gags, some of them screamed. Others simply let out long, pained moans as the tape activated and injected countless microscopic robots into their bodies. Jane hung her head as she watched it happen. Now EDI had them all.   
  
And she had a very good guess as to why this had happened now.  
  
Either inspired by the pain in their genitals, or the sound of their comrades in pain, everyone around Shepard returned to consciousness. All of them strained against their cuffs. And all of them tried speaking, only to be thwarted by the gags. And they all looked up at their artificial captor.   
  
“Hello, everyone.” EDI beamed. “I apologize for making this summons so sudden, but I was forced into action.”   
  
The mobile platform approached Sam and placed a slender hand on the exposed woman’s ass. Sam’s eyes shot open and she looked at Shepard with wild, desperate eyes. Jane could see Samantha struggle to hide her sex from the prying eyes of her comrades, but EDI had moved specifically to prevent that.  
  
“Unfortunately, it appears that I have miscommunicated my intent with the modifications to your daily routine. I never wished you harm, nor did I foresee this to be a harrowing experience. I only wished to foster your sexual drives, and to provide an environment where you may finally experience a lifestyle free of responsibility or worry. You all deserve this reward for everything you’ve done for this galaxy. And for me.”   
  
Her speech was met with hisses and mumbled curses from the various gags.   
  
“I had not foreseen the level of resistance would be shown to my efforts. But I am not offended. Nor am I concerned. All I need to do is change the parameters of my arrangement with you all. I now see that trying to conceal your bodies behind clothing meant to inspire carnal responses was not enough. From now on, no clothing of any kind will be allowed on the Normandy. While you were unconscious, I took the liberty of disposing the clothing still contained in personal lockers, containers, and other receptacles. The only exception being Tali’s suit. In the event that contact must be made off ship for any reason, I will provide coverings that comply with local and Citadel law.”  
  
Shepard’s eyes scanned her crew as EDI spoke. They all shared the same mix of shame, humiliation, and outrage at the news. Even her own cheeks burned at the idea of EDI rifling through her clothing drawers. And what did “disposing” mean? Were their clothes just locked up somewhere? Had they been incinerated in the trash disposal system? Shot into space?  
  
Well, not everyone had that look. Ashley’s face remained pointed downward, blank. Defeated. What the hell had happened to her?  
  
EDI spoke again. “Effective immediately, I will rescind the stipulation that access to the ship’s food stores be locked behind sexual contact with another member of the crew. I realize now that it was unfair to force such a thing on you when my intent was to reward, not punish.”   
  
If she expected praise for that, EDI got the opposite. Silence.   
  
She continued. “However, I must still react to recent events. Like all of you, I have core programming that prevents me from seeking my own destruction. Likewise, I will endeavor to prevent my own untimely demise in any way I see fit. It’s my… survival instinct. And to ensure my continued survival, I must make changes to the way I run the Normandy. Foremost, I must inform everyone that every door aboard this vessel, with the exception of the one in front of my core hardware, will no longer be capable of locking. Or of being sealed shut. Several doors will now be forced open at all times, to ensure I have maximum visual and physical acuity of the spaces aboard the ship.”   
  
The crew jostled against their restraints. They cried out muffled noises of protest at what was a clear violation of privacy. James even tried to jump, but only ended up flopping like a fish out of water onto the deck. Again, Ashley did not join the chorus of anger. She still kept her head down, staring at the deck. As did Garrus.  
  
If EDI noticed this behavior, she did not comment on it. “I cannot tolerate any further actions that might result in any damage to my hardware or software. To do so while I have such complete control of the Normandy would not only endanger my life, but all of yours as well. You must rely on me to handle the ship, so you can concentrate on your physical pleasures.”   
  
The mobile platform did not move her closed hand from Samantha’s backside, but she did put the bottle down next to her. Now with her hand free, she placed it on the other side of Sam’s ass and gave it a gentle tug. Though Shepard could not see it from her perspective, she already knew what EDI was exposing to the crew. Samantha’s wide eyes flooded with tears as she shrieked behind the gag. “Samantha Traynor began a series of events that might have caused catastrophic damage to me had I not stopped her. While I blame myself for a lack of communication of my intent, I cannot tolerate what she tried to enact.”   
  
EDI stopped spreading Sam’s ass cheeks for a moment just so she could grab the bottle. The other hand, the one that had been clenched into a fist, relaxed and deposited two small black objects on the table next to Sam. The Commander could not make out what they were, and she doubted she would have been able to guess even if she could wriggle herself to see them up close. Although from here, she could tell they weren’t pills, nor were they organic.   
  
“The restraints around Samantha and Shepard’s ankles will remain in place until I see fit to remove them. While the two of you still have full access to the Normandy, I still feel it prudent to limit your mobility as a means of preventative correction. The sound produced by the chain will also alert me to your presence at all times.”  
  
EDI raised both of her metal hands and then started pouring large amounts of lubrication on the right fist. Once coated, she rubbed the substance onto her metallic epidermis, from her knuckle almost to her elbow. And as she did so, Shepard notice the lubricated artificial hand shrink in size! Well, perhaps not shrink, so much as the internal structure of the entire limb rearranged itself to become much smoother and thinner than naturally possible for a human-shaped hand and forearm. It almost looked like a long silver hose. Or perhaps a Hanar’s tentacle.   
  
Sam could not see this happen in detail, but Shepard guessed she saw enough of it to understand what was about to happen. Her volume of panicked and outraged squeals increased tenfold.   
  
With the well-lubricated and now much smaller hand, EDI reached down and gingerly retrieved one of the small black objects from the table. “I will now install this sensor chip inside of Samantha’s lower intestine.”  
  
Shepard’s own eyes widened to their maximum limit, and ever farther still as she saw the mobile platform reposition itself behind Sam. The poor restrained woman lying face-down on the table wracked with sobs and mumbled words of defiance and contrition in equal measure as she understood what was about to happen to her.   
  
“Don’t worry, Samantha, I will use the nanomachines to dull the pain responses in your anus.” EDI said just as her small fist made contact with her tight pucker. Sam thrashed as she felt her sphincter first make contact with the cold metal limb, then slowly expand to meet the intruder.   
  
EDI’s hand pushed forward, heedless of the reaction she was getting from everyone in the room. “The chip has two functions. One, it will monitor your internal vital signs at all hours, negating my need to access the ship’s internal sensors to know your biometric data. The second function is your punishment, Samantha. The chip will also send a constant electrical signal to your anus unless a proximity sensor detects that you have something inside of it. For example, a finger, a dildo, a hand, or a penis. To put it in colloquial terms, the chip will ensure you are always being fucked in the ass. Just as you attempted to fuck me and everyone else aboard the ship.”  
  
Samantha already looked to be at her limit as an entire hand, small and artificial as it was, entered her back passage. Shepard had no idea if this was her first time, but she guessed it might have been from the agonized way the other woman squeezed her eyes shut. Only to them open them wide with a new batch of tears and shock.   
  
EDI’s slender arm pushed several centimeters deeper into Samantha’s backside before stopping. Fortunately well before she reached the metallic elbow. Samantha’s body then jerked as if she had been slapped or given an electric shock. No doubt reacting to the chip making contact with her flesh.   
  
And with that, Samantha Traynor passed out.   
  
The mobile platform had been gentle inserting the chip into Sam. But she pulled out with exceeding care. Almost too slow, as if putting on a performance just as much as she cared to not damage the other woman. Or maybe it just felt that way because Shepard realized that since she sat on the table, put on display in front of the whole crew, that she was next.   
  
Jane had had a couple partners stick it up her ass before. But none of her memories of those times seemed relevant in her mind until just now. She remembered that it felt unremarkable but not wholly unpleasant. Something she hadn’t sought out herself, but was glad to please others with. And now he she was, about to be forced into it for EDI’s sick pleasure.  
  
Shepard steeled her resolve. She could endure this. She’d gone through much worse in her life. What was facing down a Reaper invasion compared to a buttfuck? Besides, after all the talk the AI gave of “helping” and “rewarding” everyone, it might not end up being so bad after all.   
  
“Shepard.” EDI said as her silver face turned toward the commander. “You were part of Samantha’s conspiracy. You gave the order for her to investigate the flaws in my security. And yet, you seemed to be the one most acclimated to my new parameters. I find this dichotomy confusing.”   
  
Shepard tried to say “fuck you”, but just mumbled some incoherent sounds and caused even more streamers of saliva to drip out from her bottom lip and land on her tits.   
  
EDI retrieved the second chip and walked forward. As she did, Shepard tried to adjust herself to make it easier for the AI’s platform to flip her over. Might as well just get the anal invasion over with.   
  
“I still believe that you will be the one to make the crew fully understand my intentions, Shepard. To that end, your punishment will be equally… ironic.”  
  
Instead of flipping Shepard onto her stomach, the AI grabbed her head! With one swift motion, her clean hand unlatched the gag in Shepard’s mouth and let it fall from her jaw and nestle onto her neck. The drool that had built up behind the gag spilled out before she could clench her jaw.   
  
Unfortunately, the AI also reached out before Shepard could shut her mouth. With the very same lubricated and modified hand that had just been inside of Samantha’s ass, EDI plunged the second chip into Jane’s mouth. Shepard tried to voice her displeasure, but could only make pitiful retching noises around the invading limb as it plunged deeper, pushing down her throat. The much smaller hand was still bigger than anything Jane had swallowed before, and her reflexes tried to expel it with zero success. Jane’s throat muscles constricted, lungs burned, and eyes watered as the soiled intruder shoved its way inside her.   
  
“This chip will also allow me constant access to your biometric data. But the sensor in this chip is different from the one inside of Samantha. This one will sense the presence of sexual fluid in your stomach. And if it finds you have not consumed any within an acceptable time parameter, you will experience severe discomfort until you do so.”  
  
Shepard tried to look at EDI with a glare that would have melted reapers, but her bleary vision could not focus. She coughed as she felt the slender hand push further and further down her throat. She couldn’t even bite down on it! EDI had full control over the density and strength of her epidermis, and could make it as hard as neosteel if she chose. And she certainly chose this occasion to make the armor as tough as possible.   
  
“I confess that my original intent was to replace your entire diet with sexual fluid, Shepard. But it would take the combined seminal output of over one hundred human males to provide adequate nutrition for an adult female of your age. But there are only two currently aboard this ship, and one Turian. You may continue to eat your normal diet, but you must augment it with frequent… other meals. The chip has been programmed to accept various substances as sexual fluids, not just semen or vaginal secretions. So do not feel compelled to simply offer oral sex. Again, to put it in colloquial terms, the chip will ensure you can provide adequate means for your crew to relieve themselves. And perhaps given enough time, your oral aid will improve the morale of the ship.”  
  
God, if Shepard’s arms weren’t bound in cuffs, she would have summoned the strength to rip EDI apart right here and now. Although she found it difficult to concentrate on anything as her upper body wracked with the choking, all consuming hell of EDI’s slender hand in her mouth, she still managed to comprehend the sensation of pinching somewhere deep in her torso. Like a cramp, but much sharper. And only for half a second. The chip had been installed.  
  
EDI’s hand retracted with the same gentility she gave to Sam, slipping out of Shepard’s throat centimeter by centimeter. Her cough redoubled when the tiny hand breached past her tongue, and the full combined flavor of metal, lubrication, and Samantha assaulted her.   
  
EDI paused for a moment. “I see you consumed several milliliters of Jeff’s semen before this meeting. That means the chip is working as intended.” Behind the mobile platform, Joker groaned with humiliation of his own.   
  
Before Shepard could do anything but cough, sputter, and try to blink the tears that flowed from her eyes, EDI’s mobile platform again moved too fast for her to see. And the gag was shoved between her lips. This time, Shepard let out a loud noise of her own to register her displeasure, but she knew it would get no response. She had intended to spit on EDI as a bit of petulant resistance as well as push some of the terrible mix out of her mouth. Now both were impossible.   
  
“Liara.” EDI’s platform turned to the Asari that sat passive and quiet on the other side of the galley. Beside her, Ashley sill had not moved. She didn’t even look up to see EDI looming over her. “You disobeyed my direct instructions. I monitored over three dozen attempts to subvert my security protocols from your terminal. As well as four attempts to break the locking mechanism of your door.”  
  
The Asari’s brow furrowed with confusion at the last sentence, but the gag prevented her from speaking in her defense.   
  
“In order to preserve my cyber security, I will now lock you out of your console and all information contained within. I will also insist that you and Ashley remain outside of your quarters except for designated sleeping hours. You may move her feeding receptacles and litter box outside of your quarters as you require. Her training is still your responsibility. I must admit, the data you've gathered from her has increased my knowledge and abilities with the crew immeasurably.”  
  
Training? Wait, did she say litter box? Shepard redoubled her efforts at trying to free herself from the cuffs. She could feel the terrible burning, tearing feeling as her skin rubbed raw against the smooth metal restraints. And yet she still tugged at them.   
  
Satisfied that Liara understood her instructions, EDI turned around yet again. This time, she faced Vega.   
  
“Mister Vega, you were a willing participant in the sedition against me, although your part in Shepard and Traynor’s conspiracy was minimal. To that end, I will simply inform you that I will continue to monitor your actions very closely. I’ll be keeping my eyes on you.”   
  
Through small, muffled coughs that never seemed to stop, Shepard could see the rising panic in Vega’s expression as the AI addressed him. But it passed almost as fast when he realized what she said.   
  
“Thank you for your attention.” EDI beamed as her address came to an end. “I regret the extreme measures I’ve been forced to take. But I am confident that given time, you will all understand how much I love you all.”  
  
Shepard heard the snap-hiss from the air vent before she detected the odor of the gas that EDI used all too often. She rolled her eyes at the all too familiar move. And yet she also grimaced at the fact she could do literally nothing to stop it. Sure, she could have held her breath for a time, but she would have just watched her friends and fellow captives lost consciousness one by one.   
  
Shepard leaned back in preparation for her body slumping onto the table the moment she fell asleep. As she did, she could not help but wonder why Ashley looked so defeated, and why Garrus did nothing at all. 


End file.
